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UWi e, 34

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THE

BLAZING STAR;

WITH AN APPENDIX TREATING OF

THE JEWISH KABBALA.

ALSO A TRACT ON

THE PHILOSOPHY OP MR. HERBERT SPENCER,

AND ONE ON

NEW-ENGLAIO) TRANSCENDENTALISM.
BY

WILLIAM B. GREENE.

BOSTON:
A. WILLIAMS AND CO.

1872.

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Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872,

By WILLIAM B. GREENE,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

Boston :
Stgrtoiyped and PritUed by Rand, A tfory, 6* Co.

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THE BLAZING STAR

Some men — not all men — see always before them
an ideal, a mental picture if you will, of what they
ought to be, and are not. Whoso seeks to follow this
ideal revealed to the mental vision, whoso seeks to
attain to conformity with it, will find it enlarge itself,
and remove from him. He that follows it will im-
prove his own moral character ; but the ideal will re-
main always above him and before him, prompting
him to new exertions. What is the natural conscience
if it be not a condemnation of ourselves as we are,
mean, pitiful, weak, and a comparison of ourselves
with what we ought to be, wise, powerful, holy ?

It is this Ideal of what we ought to be, and are not,
that is symbolically pictured in the Blazing Star.

The abject slave on an East- African rice planta-
tion, brutal, ignorant, and a devil-worshipper, sees
this Day-Star rising in his heart, and straightway he
becomes intellectually of age. For it is the soul, not
the body, that attains to the age of discretion. They
who see this Star, have attained to their majority : all
other persons are minors. Before the rays of this
Star, voudouism and devil-worship, whether in refined

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societies, or among barbarous peoples, vanish into
night ; for immersion into the rays of this Star, is the
beginning of the baptism of repentance and penance
for the remission of sin — and of the penalties of sin.
* « « « «

Whoso beholds this. Star acquires faith. Faith is
conviction born from the consciousness of aspiration.
Faith is the active principle of intellectual progress.

The Blazing Star is the transfigured image of man
— the Ideal that removes farther and farther, making
always higher and higher claims, until, at the last, it
becomes lost in infinity ; and faith affirms that this
same Blazing Star may be, perhaps^ the shadowy, im-
perfect, and inadequate image of some unknown and
invisible God.

Now, if it be true that God and man are in one
image or likeness (and the affirmation that they are
so is not unplausible) then it is the duty of man to
bring out into its full splendor that Divine Image
which is latent, on one side, in the complexity of his
own nature. This conclusion confirms itself.

You say you will never believe in God until the
fact of his existence is proved to you I Then you will
never believe in him at all ; for, in the face of posi-
tive knowledge, faith is no longer possible. Faith af-
firms in the presence of the unknown. If vscience
should ever demonstrate the existence of God (which
it never can) faith would become lost in sight, and
men would no longer believe, but know. The reason
why science is intrinsically incompetent to either
prove or disprove the existence of God, is simply this,
that the subject-matter transcends the reach of scien-

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tific instruments and processes. The dispute is, there-
fore, not between faith and science, but between faith
and unbelief. Unbelief is a disease, not of the hu-
man understanding, but of the human will, and is
susceptible of cure.

Saint Paul says, " We walk by faith, and not by
sight ; " again, " We see through a glass darkly ; "
and again, " We are saved by hope, but hope that is
seen is not hope." Do what we will, we are under
the necessity of walking, much more than half our
time, not by sight, but by faith. The better half
of our life upon the earth, and the happier half, is
the part that is spent in advance of positive knowl-
edge.

Science is constantly encroaching on the domains
of faith, by showing that postulates of faith are de-
monstrably correct. But whenever any postulate of
faith is proved, and thus becomes a truth of science,
and no longer a truth of faith, faith immediately
passes again to the front, with the affirmation of a
new, and a higher, postulate. Faith keeps always
well in advance of science.

Legitimate science never arrays itself in a hostile
attitude against genuine faith. Science, it is true,
often successfully refutes dogmas that are alleged to
be of faith ; but, in such cases, it is always found,
upon due observation and inquiry, that the dogmas
so refuted were born, not at all of faith, but of politi-
cal or clerical ambition, or of fear, or of self-interest,
or of the presumption of ignorance, or of some other
•human passion, — or, perhaps, of sheer stupidity.

Superstition, fanaticism and bigotry are signs and
1*

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marks showing that the soul is not yet intellectually
of age. They never result from convictions born of
the consciousness of aspiration, and are, therefore,
never of faith.

Faith does not say, Is there a God ? It is doubt
that says that. Faith says, Why should there not be
a God ? Absolute perfection is no natural obstacle
to existence, but the contrary. Faitl^ays, Figure to
yourself, if you can, that there is no God ! You can-
not do it.

Faith is the aflBrmation respecting things unknown,
that is implied in the practical recognition of known
absurdity as such. Faith is reason denying absurdity
in the face of the unknown.

An admissible definition of God must be in the
form of a negative pregnant — an affirmation of God
as that unknown Absolute and Infinite, which is the
reason of the existence of the known finite and rela-
tive that we ourselves are.

Faith is from within ; it is the outbreaking of hu-
man spontaneity ; it is force of soul, grandeur of sen-
timent, magnanimity, generosity, courage. Its formu-
las are naturally unintelligible in their literal tenor ;
for, otherwise, they would represent that which is
scientifically known, and would not be the mere pro-
visional clothing of that which is not objectively
given, but subjectively * projected from the inmost
depth of the soul. Man, having an ideal before him
of that which he ought to be, and is not, and act-

• That is subject which calls itself Ego^ I. That is object which the /
contradistinguishes from itself, calling it non-Ego. That is subjective which
belongs to the subject; and that objective which belongs to the object.

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ing as though he possessed the character he ought
to have, but has not, comes, by the very virtue of
his aspiration, to possess the character he imagines.
Thus the world is leavened. Materialism, the spirit-
ual death which is consequent upon the subordination
of the subject to the object in thought, is the very soil
from which faith springs ; for every thing that stands
by itself alone, makes way, through the necessity of
the principle of contradictions, for its correlative op-
posite. Stoicism has always its birth in Sybaritic
cities, and among over-civilized and effete peoples.
Men learn, through faith, to do always the very thing
they are afraid to do, and thus come to fear no longer.
Unbelief naturally gives emptiness of heart; and
emptiness of heart surprises itself with spontaneity of
worship; and spontaneous worship gives the wor-
shipper something of the high nature of that which
is worshipped ; and, in this way, unbelief transfigures
itself, and loses itself in faith. Faith may always be
acquired. Whoso is devoid of faith, and desires to
have it, may acquire it by living for a few days (some-
times for a few hours only) as though he already pos-
sessed it. It is by practical, not theoretical, religion,
that men transform their lives. By the practice of
faith, man grows strong in faith. The moral coward
becomes a moral hero as soon as he acquires faith.
Weak women, among the early martyrs, learned by
faith to face the wild beasts. When they were
thrown to the lions, the lions trembled ; for the
women were more lion-like than the lions, and the
lions knew it.

mm m m m

Man has a thrieefold nature. He is, therefore, syra-

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bolically represented under the similitude of a tri-
angle. Saint Paul says that man is body, soul, and
spirit ; and Saint Augustin says that he is will, un-
derstanding, memory. One philosopher says that
man is intelligence, activity, and sensibility ; another
says that he is sensation, sentiment, cognition;
and other philosophers give other formulas. But
there exists no extant denial (at the* least, none such
exists to our knowledge) of the essential triplicity
of man's nature.

« « « « «

The Ideal is the invisible Sun which is always on
the meridian of the soul. As the ever-revolving
earth rises and sets upon the sun, which is steadfast,
and not the sun on the earth, so the soul rises or
sets on the Ideal ; which is what it is whether man
behold it or not, and is itself unaffected by man's
attitude in respect to it, since it is the fixed centre,
and the Day-Star of spiritual existences. It was for
this reason that the temples were always opened in
the ancient times, for purposes of initiation, at what
was mystically called " high noon," although, in point
of practical fact, that same *' high noon " often oc-
curred at the dead of night. This Day-Star was
known in the temples as Bel-samen^ the Lord of
Heaven, — as Mithras also, or as Osiris^ or Apollo^ or,
more mystically, as Abrasax^ and by a thousand
other names. In the public worship, it was recog-
nized as the visible sun ; but in the esoteric work,
after the avenues of the temples were duly guarded
against cowans and eavesdroppers, as the Ideal-Man,
and as the Star of souls.

« « « • •

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The five-rayed Blazing Star — the Pentacle —
Abrak — is the special star of the great a

Aryan (or Indo-Germanic, or Japhetic*) — -/V—
race. [The Shemite knows it not.] This /^sA
Star — Abrak — is a disguised image or A^ ^
likeness of man. The superior ray represents the
head ; the horizontal rays, the two arms ;
and the inferior rays, the two legs. This
Star, being unsymmetrical, is capable of
being turned upside down. It is our in-
tention to explain, at some future time, the terrible
meaning that is presented by the five-rayed Star,
when its point is turned downward. Let it suffice
to say, here, in passing, that this detestable sign (the
inverted Star) execrated by the more intelligent
adepts themselves in perverted mysteries, and ex-
cluded from their midnight orgies, is the head of the
famous goat that plays so important a part in the
ceremony of obscene initiations. The two ascending
rays are the goat's horns, the horizontal rays are his
two ears, and thd descending ray is his beard, f

* " These are the generations of Noah : Noah was a just man, and perfect in
his generations, and Noah walked with the Elohim. And Noah begat three
sons, SJiem, Ham^ and Japhet.'^—Gen. vi. 9-10.

t The human hand, with the thumb and fingers, is the five-rayed Star; but
with the three larger fingers closed, and the thumb and little finger protruding
(the common counter-charm to the evil-eye) it is that Star inverted, or the
gotkVs head. The band with the three larger fingers closed, is tlie negation of
the ternary, and the affirmation of the antagonistic natural forces only. The
thumb represents generative power, and the little finger denotes insinuating
tact : the hand, therefore, that shows the thumb and little finger only, denotes
passion united with address. Tlie thumb is the synthesis of the whole hand.
A morally strong man has always a strong thumb; and a weak man, a weak
thumb. A long thumb denotes obstmacy. Blessings are conferred with two
of the larger fingers, or with all three of them. The thumb and little finger
are used in cursing.

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The Shemitic race, the equal of the Aryan, and
in some respects its superior, knows not Abrak : it
sees not that inner light which the Aryan sees, and
of which we have all along been speaking. But, in-
stead, the Shemite hears inwardly — as the Aryan
does not — mysterious and unspeakable words which
it is not lawful for a man to utter. To the Shemite,
conscience is not at all a comparison, as it is to the
Aryan, of what man makes real in himself, with the
ideal always before him of what he ought to so make
real, but is, on the contrary, the actual voice of God
speaking inwardly to the soul. The Aryan ob-
jectivizes all things. He forms conceptions tangible
to the imagination ; and what he is incompetent to
clearly conceive, he discards as unreal. He naturally
gives form and expression, through symbolic art, to
his inward thought; and, until his thought is ex-
pressed in form, it is, to him, as though it existed
not. To the Shemite, on the contrary, all visible
symbols, whether discernible to the outward or to
the inward eye, are worse than worthless. The
poetry of the Aryans is objective" and descriptive ;
that of the Shemites is sometimes didactic, sometimes
lyrical, but never objective. The Shemite has no
plastic and no pictorial art. The religion of the
Aryan is that of the revealed Ideal ; the religion of
the Shemite is that of the revealed Word. The con-
science is the essential religious faculty of man ; and
it is in the divergent natures of the Aryan and
Shemitic consciences, that ^the root of the diver-
gencies of the Aryan and Shemitic religions is to be
sought and found. The soirit of the Shemite con-

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tinually groans and travails within itself, waiting for
the utterance of unspoken words ; and it revels in
the consciousness of that which it knows to be at
once real and inconceivable. When the great wind
rent the mountains, and broke the rocks in pieces
before Elijah (a Hebrew Shemite) the prophet could
not see God in the wind Neither could he see God
in the earthquake that followed the wind, or in
the fire that followed the earthquake. But, after
the fire, there came " a still small voice ; " and, when
Elijah heard that^ he wrapped his face in his mantle,
and went to the mouth of the cave, and stood up
before Jehovah. It was the "word" of the Lord
that came to the greater Hebrew prophets ; and it
was only by prophets of lesser note that "visions"
were seen in deep sleep, when they were upon their
beds. The greater prophets heard in ecstatic trances ;
but they seldom saw clairvoyantly. It would seem
that God is nearer to the Shemite than he is to the
Aryan. When the Aryan, bewildered in his reason-
ings, turns round and says, " There is no God I " the
Shemite, hearing him, answers, "God exists. I
know him personally. I have talked with him, and
he has talked with me." And the Shemitic affirma-
tion of faith has always carried the day against the
Aryan suggestion of doubt. For whenever, in the
great march of mankind — humanity — the collective
Adam* — from the mystical Eastern gate of Eden,^

* Saint Paul, that great Eabbalist^ shows clearly (Romans v. 12-10, and
1 Corinthians xiv. 22), that by the word " Adam ^ is to bo understood the
original CoUecHve Man, The GoUectiye Man may very well ha^e once existed
in a single person, or, rather, in a single couple; and, in fact, tradition informs
as that it has twice so existed, ~ once in Adam and Ere, and once in Noah
and his wife.

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an Aryan religion has come in contact with a
Shemitic religion, the Aryan religion has at once
gone to the wall, waned pale, wilted, and subsided.

« « 4& « «

In the year 606 B. C, Nebuchadnezzar, the
Shemitic King of Shemitic-Hamitic Bab3^1on, utterly
and definitively defeated Joachim, the Shemitic king
of Shemitic Jerusalem, and transplanted the mass of
the Jewish people, as captives, to the neighborhood
of Babylon.

During their captivity, the chiefs of the Jews, al-
ready ' initiated into the profound mysteries of the
Hebrew religion, were further initiated into the oc-
cult science of the Chaldeans, — a science of Hamitic
origin, akin to that of Tyre and Sidon, and to that
which had its mysterious colleges on Mount Gebal.

About seventy years after the fall of Jerusalem,
Cyrus, king of the Turanian and Aryan Medes, and
of the Aryan Persians, having first turned the Eu-
phrates aside, took Babylon by storm, on the night of
a drunken and frantic Chaldean festival. He entered
the city by the way of the emptj^ river-bed, bringing
with him, as oflScial chaplains of his army, the more
illustrious of the Median Magi, and the Aryan chief-
priests of Ormudz.

The captive Jews, who had been all along conspir-
ators in Babylon, and secret allies of the Persians,
furnished guides, spies and scouts to the invading
Aryan army. After the taking of the city, Cyrus
rewarded the Jews with his pergonal friendship, and
Bent them back to their own country, with instruc-
tions to rebuild Jerusalem ; which latter city re-

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mained, after its restoration, for several generations,
as much from gratitude as policy, a Persian strong-
hold.

At the solemn conferences that took place in the
East of Babylon, near the great Tower, at the time
of the Persian conquest, between the Median Magi,
the Chaldean soothsayers, the Aryan priests of Or-
mudz, and the Hebrew Prophets, the facts were clear-
ly verified, that, on one side, man aspires towards
God, and, on the other, that the Supreme condescends
to take up. his abode, and to utter his oracles, in the
secret temple of the human heart. These facts had,
it is true, been well known for centuries to the gen-
erality of simple and pious men and women in private
station, and also to prophets * and inspired poets ; but
they had never before been so verified to the convic-
tion of kings and statesmen, in the presence of con-
curring and confessing sacerdotal corporations.

At these conferences, the three constituent ele-
ments of the universal consciousness of the collective
Adam, were severally and respectively represented.
The Aryan priests of Ormudz maintained the claims of
the object in thought. The Hamitic-Chaldean sooth- '
sayers (Hamitic Egypt had no delegate at the synod)
maintained the claims of the human subject. And
the Hebrew Prophets from the Holy Land maintained
the claims of the relation which subsists between the

• " This commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from
thee, neither is it fur oflT. It is not in heaven, that thou shonldest say, Who
shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and d0
It. Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over
the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it. But th*
word i& very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest
do iX»^Deut. XXX. 11-14.

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subject and the object in thought. For, where the
Aryan sees inwardly, and affirms the reality of the
object^ and the Shemite hears inwardly, and affirms
the reality of the relation between the subject and
the object, the Hamite feels inwardly, but very dark-
ly, and affirms the reality of the human subject.*

In these conferences were also verified the founda-
tions of that sublime and universal science, which, six
centuries afterwards, was published among adepts, as
the Holy Kabbala, and which had been known, but
fragmentarily only, and in its essential principles,
long before, to men of the stamp of Abraham, Zoroas-
ter, Moses, Solomon king of Jerusalem, and Hiram
king of Tyre.

The Orient of Babylon was not intellectually com-
petent to co-ordinate the principles of the Kabbala,
and to present the completed synthetic doctrine in a
definitive form. There was a necessity that the ma*
terials should remain unsystematized until the human
intellect could have an opportunity to become shar-
pened by the practice of Greek metaphysical dialectics.
Many Greek words occur in the Zohar^ or Book of
Splendor ; and it is difficult to believe that certain
essential passages of the Idra Suta (the third tract in
the collection of the lesser Zohar} could have been
written by any one unacquainted with Aristotle's
treatise of Metaphysics.f Careful investigators have

* Of course, the synod took no oo/^izance of the metaphysical distinction
of the subject, the object, and the relation, in thought, under its modern ab-
stract form. What we now call the object, was then darkly cognized as the
Japhetic characteristic, tendency, and inspiring natural principle; what we
call the 8ubjcctf as the HamUic characteristic, tendency, and inspiring natural
principle; and what we call the relation, as the Shemitic, &c.

t *< The thought which is most, is thought concerning that which is most:

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decided, from what they regard as internal evidence,
that the definitive compilation of the Kabbala dates
from some period between the year 200 B.C. and the
year 150 of the Christian era. It is the internal form
of the Kabbala, however, its substance only, that is
systematic : its exposition in words has been left, ap-
parently with deliberate intention, in dn exceedingly
chaotic state. To the majority of readers, the Kab-
bala is, as it ought to be, completely unintelligible.
« « « « «

At an unknown and remote epoch, it was affirmed,
probably by some Hamite, as a postulate of faith, that
God and man are in the same likeness or
image. It was also affirmed, as a logical
consequence of this fundamental affirma-
tion, (1) that, since man is triune, the Supreme is
also triune, and (2) that, since man may be denoted
by an ascending triangle, the Supreme may be de-
noted by a descending triangle. The figure in the
margin is not at all idolatrous ; for it is not, as Abrak
is; a disguised image or likeness. It is a reminder
only, — a sign or symbol, — not a resemblance. It is
a pictorial wordy suggesting a thought, — such as were
in common and necessary use before the alphabet was
invented.

It was also affirmed, perhaps at the same unknown
epoch, that the interlacing of the Divine triangle

and mind knows itself through the perception of that which is intelligible;
and mind becomes intelligible to itself through reflection and thought : so that
intelligence itself becomes intelligible. . . . Thus God possesses in perfection
what we possess for a time only. He possesses more than we have stated; for
he possesses, in addition, life. The action of intelligence is life; and God ia
that wtlon."^AriatotUi*8 Metaphyiica, Book xU.

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with the human triangle, in the six-rayed Blazing

OStar, is the authentic symbol of the rev-
elation of God to man, and of the abode
of the Supreme in the human heart, as well
as of the aspiration of man towards God.
Jacob Behmen asserts that the junction of these two
triangles is the most significant and mystical figure
in nature. The reality denoted by this symbol is
neither God nor man : it is distinct from man, be-
fore him, and above him, as the human Ideal ; and it
is apart from God, as one of the Revelations of Him-
self that the Supreme sees fit to make to man, — as
one of the names of Him who, in his own essence, is

NAMELESS.

Sometimes the six-rayed Blazing Star is portrayed
as a mystic Rose with six leaves. But the ordinary
form is that of the two interlacing triangles, with the
Divine name inscribed in the middle of
the figure. The interlacing triangles
are often indicated by a junction of the
square and compasses : to which, some-
times, the plumb and the level are
added, forming a cross in the cen-
■ - tre, and giving a ten-rayed Star,

^^y/ with four of the rays (those

^^ formed by the extremities of the

plumb and level) occulted. This is the prophetic
Star ; and the ten rays stand for the ten Kabbalistio
Sephiroth. Without a preliminary understanding of
the ten Sephiroth, the Kabbala, as a Philosophy of
History, and consequently as a Practical Art for the
forecasting of future events, cannot be appreciated.

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We will do our best at some future time, if occasion
offers, to explain these ten rays, ray by ray, from the
KabbaJistic point of view.

« « « « «

The ordinary, every-day man or woman, that is to
say, the man or woman who has not yet reached per-
fection, — and who is there that has reached perfec-
tion ? — may be symbolically represented, if he or she
be morally of age, by an equilateral triangle with one
angle pointing upward to the Blazing Star. Whoso
recognizes the virtue of that Star, at once acknowl-
edges the Divine Law in its threefold applications,
and strives after conformity with the Ideal, not ac-
cording to the spirit only, but also according to the
soul and the body.

Man's duty to himself and to his fellow-man, under
the rays of the Blazing Star, is threefold : (1) the
achievement of his own Liberty ; (2) the definitive
establishment of relations of Equality between him-
self and other men ; and (3) the fusion of himself, in
the solidarity of Brotherhood, with all human beings
who, like himself, recognize the Blazing Star.

Liberty is the power which every human being
ought to possess of acting according to the dictates
of his own private conscience, under the rays of that
Blazing Star which is seen by him, secretly, from the
centre of his individual heart.

Equality is the condition that obtains in every so-
ciety where no special or artificial privilege is granted
to any one, or to any set, of its membere.

Brotherhood is that strict solidarity between the
members of a social body, which causes, under the

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rays of tlie Blazing Star, the welfare of each to be
seen as involved in that of every other, and of all, and
that of all in that of each.

Liberty is the right of each member against every
other member, and against all the members. Equal-
it}'- is the right of every other member, and of all the
members, against each member. Liberty and Equal-
ity find their harmony in the synthetic principle of
Fraternity. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: this
is the mystical triangle that ought to be inscribed on
the banners of every truly-constituted social organ-
ism.

Liberty alone may lead to anarchy, or to the
tyranny of individuals over the mass ; but the dangers
from Liberty vanish in the presence of Equality.
Equality alone may lead to the tyxanny of the gen-
eral mass over individuals or over minorities ; but the
dangers from Equality vanish in the presence of Lib-
erty. FriEiternity is never alone ; for it is, in its es-
sence, the synthesis of Liberty and Equality.
« « « « «

What is it to he a Slave ? It is to have the inward
knowledge of that which is great and holy, and to be
constrained to do things that are small and base. It
is to be a person consciously capable of self-govern-
ment, and to be, at the same time, subject to the will
of another person. It is to be a full-grown person
whose actual rights are those of a child only. It is
to see the Blazing Star, and not be permitted to fol-
low it.

Slavery is a factitious and arbitrarily-imposed pro-
longation of the term of moral minority. Paternal

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government, actual or constructive, is just and legiti-
mate when exercised over persons who are morally
under age ; but, to such as know the Blazing Star,
it is, when exercised to the confiscation of their initia-
tive, the most infernal of all tyrannies. Paternal
government, exercised by the natural father over his
own minor children. Is tempered by affection, and jus-
tifies itself; but paternal government, exercised by
usurpers over their natural equals and superiors, is
an oppressive wrong, and the most intolerable of all
outrages, — at the least, it is so in the estimation of
such as have seen the Blazing Star.

It is neither the experience of physical want and
privation, nor the fact of subordination to legitimate
authority, that makes a man to be a slave ; for saints
and soldiers suffer hardships, and obey their superiors,
and are not slaves. On the contrary, it is by the token
of the conscious moral penury which a soul feels when
it finds itself helpless and hopeless under the domina-
tion of an alien soul, — it is by the sentiment of a con-
fiscated individuality, by the consciousness of being
annexed, as a base appendage, to another soul, — it is
by the consciousness of, being sacrificed to a foreign
personality, — it is by the darkening of the moral
firmament, and by the occultation of the Blazing Star,
through the intervention of an extraneous usurping
will, — that a man comes to know that he is a slave.
And it is, on the other hand, the insolent, lying hy-
pocrisy, the false professions of morality, the trans-
parently-spurious philanthropy, the limitless and
blinding arrogance of self-conceit, under which the
usurper half-conceals, half-reveals, his unnatural lust

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to wipe out human souls, and to obliterate every indi-
viduality except his own, — that gives energy to
slaves, and renders conspiracies, risings, strikes, and
revolutions, deadly and chronic.

The fundamental right of a man is the right to be
himself ; and this right is his sovereignty. No man
has a right to confiscate the sovereignty of any other
man. No man can delegate to another man, or to
society, any right which he does not himself possess.
A man may wickedly forfeit his sovereignty by the
commission of crime ; he may perversely turn his back
upon the Blazing Star, and abdicate his individuality
and his manhood. But no man can righifvlly abdi-
cate his sovereignty. It is the duty of every man of
sane mind, who supports himself, and is not convicted
of crime, to vindicate his essential dignity as right-
ful sovereign of himself and of every thing that per-
tains to his individuality. Every able-bodied man
has a natural right, and a natural duty, to forcibly re-
pel, and to combine with others to forcibly repel, any
and all wrongful invasions of his sovereignty. Society
exists for the individual, and not the individual for
society. Institutions are made for man, and not man
for institutions.

« « « « »

The French Free Masons claim, in their Constitu-
tions, that the formula Liberty, Equauty, Frater-
nity, has been, from the beginning, the device of their
order.

The writer of these pages is, and has been, for many
yeare, a member of one of the Masonic Lodges (we
are told there were a hundred and twenty of them)

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that recently planted their banners, under the fire of
the Versailles troops, upon the ramparts in front of
Paris. He knows not by what authority the demon-
stration was made. He supposes, however, that it
was made by the authority of the Paris Lodges only,
and that the consent of the Grand Orient of France
was neither requested nor deemed necessary.

It is easy, at this moment, to apply abusive epithets,
either to the Commune or to its enemies. The Great
Architect of the Universe will, at the proper time,
judge both parties.

The French word commune is the equivalent of our
English word toiim. The word communiste may de-
note, in French, either (1) an advocate of the doc-
trine that women and property ought to be held in
common, or (2) an upholder of the principle of mu-
nicipal self-government. The Commune of Paris
fought, in its recent great fight, not for a community
of women and goods, but for municipal self-govern-
ment. It was well known, both at Paris and at Ver-
sailles, while the fighting was going on, that M.
Thiers could have made peace with the insurgents,
at any moment, by simply guaranteeing to the city
of Paris an amount of municipal liberty equal to that
which has always been enjoyed by the city of Boston.
This fact, which cannot with any plausibility be de-
nied, and which probably will not be denied, suffices,
of itself alone, to put the merits of the dispute be-
tween the Commune of Paris and the Versailles gov-
ernment, in its true light, and to fully expose the
calumnious misrepresentations of the Versailles party.

We are of the opinion, that, taking fighting as it

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rises, the Commune made a passably good fight. We
are especially proud of the heroic women with whom
the honor of arms has definitively restedi

We, nevertheless, take the liberty to recommend
the Commune to be more circumspect, hereafter, in
the matter of summary executions. Better things
were expected of the Commune than of the Versailles
government; for the Commune represents advancing
civilization, while the Versailles government repre-
sents the commercial, industrial, and financial feudal-
ism of the present and the past. It will never do for
men who have seen the Blazing Star, to follow evil
examples, and meet murder with murder. The exe-
cution of spies and traitors, and the use of petroleum
for incendiary purposes,* are perfectly justifiable
under the laws of war ; but the civilized world does
not look with approval, and ought not to look with
approval, upon the military execution of priests and
other non-combatants. We know (or, at the least,
we have been informed) that the Commune offered
to exchange the Archbishop of Paris for Blanqui,
and that the offer was not accepted. This fact (if it
be a fact) consigns the memory of M. Thiers to the
execration of posterity ; but it does not excuse the
Commune.

The existing French Assembly was elected, not at
all to govern France, but to consult on the possibili-
ties of a reconciliation between France and Prussia,
and also, if advisable, to conclude and authenticate
a treaty of peace. The Assembly has, therefore, no

* We should like to know whether the Union Anny, acting under orders,
did, or did not, ever set Are to any thing in the valley or the Shenandoah ; ana
whether shells loaded with incendiary composition were, or wero not, thrown
from oar ships and batteries into the city of Charleston.

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lawful governmental powers. When the treaty of
peace between France and Prussia was signed, the
mandate of the Assembly expired. The government
of M. Thiers is a government of usurpers. It has
belligerent rights, and it has no other rights. Con-
sequently, every disarmed prisoner of war, male or
female, shot in cold blood after a combat, in pursu-
ance of M. Thiers's policy, whether sentenced or not
sentenced by court-martial, is — from a legal point
of view — simply a person assassinated. And the
moral aspect of the question is coincident with the
legal aspect. If the Communists committed excesses
(and it seems they were human), they did so m
defending themselves, their families, and their homes,
against thieves and usurpers. Thiers fought to
confiscate the liberties and control the money of the
people of Paris ; and Paris fought in defence of the
natural rights of its own people.

Thtee times the heroic people of Paris have been
cheated out of their Republic : once in the great rev-
olution ; afterwards in 1830 ; and, again, in 1848.
To-day the scales are still oscillating, and the result is
yet undetermined. In the next great fight, or in the
fight after the next, the Republic will prevail. The
Blazing Star as Paris sees it, now struggling with ob-
scurantism and secular wrong, tinges the whole hori-
zon of the East with the glories of the coming day.
The Kabbalistic synthesis is nearer than it was !
' « « « « «

The Shemitic principle and the Japhetic principle
are to-day represented in human civilization, — the
first by the Israelitish Church, and the second by the

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Christian Church. Both of these Churches are true
Churches, and therefore neither of them is capable
of erring in things essential. The Blazing Star burns
in both of them : the junction of the two triangles, one
Divine and the other human, — the regeneration of
the individual soul, — takes effect in both of them.
Yet these two Churches excommunicate each other 1
Why ? Because these Churches are two Churches only,
and not three. Because one whole side of the mystical
triangle is lacking in modern civilization. Because
the Hamitic principle is to-day occulted. Because
the Hamitic Church is nowhere visibly organized, and
speaking with authority, among men. Because Man,
the natural mediator between heaven and earth^ is
officially absent from the religious organizations of the
period.

Now there are three holy cities, — not two of them
only : Jerusalem, Rome, Paris. But the holiness of
Paris is virtual merely as yet. The religion o{ Hu-
manity reaches higher than the Commune and the
International Labor Union seem to think. Paris is
JSar-isis^ Parisis^ Paris. It is the sacred boat of
Isis that bears to-day the destinies of the world.

Brookline, Mass., July, 1871.

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APPENDIX.

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APPENDIX.

THE KABBALA.

The two kabbalistic* books that are of note are tbe
Jetsirah (the Book of the Creation) and the Zohab. The
Zohar is the Book of Splendor^ — the book of " the shining
ones" of whom it is written, "They that are wise shall
shine (^'^!lt^ i-zhr-u) as the shining (^ntD, k-zhr) of the
firmament." — Dan. xii. 3.

The Talmtidlf (the authoritative compendium for doc-
trine and practice among the orthodox Jews) directs that
the theory^f the creation (or the contents of the book Jet-
sirah) shall never be taught to two persons at once ; and the
explanation of the mystical chariot described by the prophet
Ezekiel (or the contents of the book Zohar) not even to one,
unless he be a man of approved wisdom, and then by a sum-
mary of the chapters only.

The most important, and probably the best authenticated,
of the documents forming the collection of the Zohar, are
the Siphra de Zeniutha (the Book of Occultations, or of
Mysteries), the Idra Rahha (the Greater Assembly), and
the Idra Suta (the Smaller Assembly). These three short

* !l!r3p} Kabbalah, that which is received (by tradition),
t The Talmud is that which is taught (with authority).

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treatises are said by experts to contain the whole real sub-
stance of the Kabbala ; and taken together, in the order just
mentioned, they form the collection known as the lesser
Zohar. In point of fact, however, the whole substance of
the Kabbala is contained in the Zeniutha; for the Idra
Rabba and the Idra Suta consist of explanations and devel-
opments of the doctrines that aje darkly outlined in the
Book of Mysteries. The last paragraph of the Zeniutha
stands as follows : —

" Thus far, the Book of the King, or of Mysteries, or of Occultations,
remains involved and hidden. Happy is that man who goes in and
comes out, and learns its paths and its croesways/'

The lesser Zohar is written in a corrupt Hebrew idiom,
long ago consigned to utter disuse, called "the Jerusalem
dialect." Its three tracts, as we now possess them in the
printed editions, are accompanied by Latin translations;
and in the light thrown by the text on the translations,
arid by the translations on the text, with the aid afforded
by the internal harmonies of the doctrine expounded, some
parts of the expositions (if they may be called expositions)
become distinctly intelligible.

There are many treatises in French, Latin, a'td in other
languages, nearly all of them easily accessible, containing
general accounts of the kabbalistic doctrine, summaries of
the various fragments of the Jetsirah and the Zohar, with
. explanations of the signs, symbols, and of the language gen-
erally, of the Kabbala ; giving also practical directions for
magical processes, the interpretation of mysteries, the exer-
cise of the prophetic art, and other like matters of interest.
Whether the kabbalistic books themselves are harder to
understand than the books written to explain them, or the
converse, we do not assume to judge : we incline, however,
to the suspicion, that, apart from the difficulties of mere
language, the commentaries are harder than^ the text.

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The Book of Mysteries opens very obscurely, as fol-
lows : —

"The Book of Occultations (or of Mysteries) is the book of weighing
in the Balance. Before this Balance was, face (the lesser aspect) an-
swered not back to face (the greater aspect). [The Microprosopus looked
not back upon the Macroprosopus.] And the ancient * kings (the sym-
bolical kings of Edom, or the worlds that were first created, but could
not subsist) were dead, and their sustenance was nowhere found, and the
earth was desolate (void, existing potentially only), until the non-cog-
nizable Head prepared vestments of honor, and bestowed them upon
that which is longed for in all desires (or until the Holy One assumed
the form and nature which involves all natures, and maintains them
all). This Balance hangs in the place which exists not. Things which
appear not are weighed in it. It is composed of that body which is neither
compacted nor seen. In it have ascended, and do now ascend, things
which are not, and are, and shall be. Occultation in occultation." —
The Zeniutha, chap. i. § 1 to § 9.

The Masora is in every respect the converse of the Kab-
bala. The Masora is that which was openly delivered by
the Eabbi: the Kabbala is that which was secretly and
mysteriously received by the disciple.

There was for the Kabbala, as there is for every thing
else that grows up under the protection of silence and dark-
ness, a long period of incubation. Symbols presented them-
selves from time to time to the minds of ingenious men,
and went into occult circulation among adepts. Some of
these symbols were illustrative pictures addressed to the
eye, and others of them were enigmatic stories and descrip-
tions addressed to the ear. Century after century passed
away before the doctrine took its systematic and definitive

* l^i^ttnpj iWrnotn, eastern. Because the morning in the east is anterior
to the noon in the 9(mtK and to the evening in the weity the word eastern came,
from very ancient times, to signify anteriority, wliether natural or metaphysi-
cal. Thus the phrase, ''the eastern kings," denoted either the first kings in
point of time, or the principiating kings. The *< ancient kings " of the text
are principiating kings.
8*

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form. ' When the books came to be written, they were writ-
ten, not to teach the doctrine, but to furnish such a series
of arbitrary mnemonic signs as would enable the initiated
reader to hold the whole general theory, divided and subdi-
vided into its constituent parts, in one view before his mind.
It is in vain, therefore, that a man opens a kabbalistic book,
if he have not beforehand, and without the aid of the book,
mastered the whole substance of its contents. The books
furnish, not matter of teaching, but enigmatic reminders of
information already acquired. Moreover, the kabbalistic
writers, aiming to conceal, rather than to reveal their doc-
trine, affect prepbsterousness of statement.

When Eabbi. Simon ben Jochai* read {Gen, iii. 3),
*^ And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the
garden in the cool of the day," he refused to believe the
things literally stated in the passage. He reasoned thus :
"The passage has a meaning; for it was written by the- au-
thor of the Bereshith:'\ the literal meaning is not the true
one; for the literal meaning is absurd: the passage has,
therefore, some occult meaning, and that occult meaning is
a proper subject for investigation." Rabbi Simon and the
other kabbalistic writers appear to imitate, in their own
expositions, what they suppose to have been the enigmatic
method of the author of the Bereshith.

The Zohar is an explanation of the mystic chariot (rDDID,
Merkehah) that is described in the first chapter of Ezekiel.
The prophet Ezekiel, when he was among the captives
which were by the River Chebar, saw visions of God. These
visions were obviously enigmatic. The prophet saw " a fire
infolding itself," and in the midst of it " the likeness of
four living creatures." He saw also "wheels," the work

* K. Simon ben Jochai is mentioned by sereral. of the kabbalistie writers
as the master who reduced the Kabbala to its definitive form.

t The SereshUh (n^^dt'ldv In tha beguMinff) is the first part of the first
book of the Hebrew Bible.

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of which was,. *^ as it were, a wheel within a wheel." "The
lings of the wheels were full of eyes." He saw also " a firma-
ment " over the wheels and the living creatures, and the color
j3iereof was " as the color of the terrihle crystal y " and on
this covering " was the appearance of a throne of sapphire-
stone/' and "upon the likeness of the throne was the liken§ss
of the appearance of a Man above upon it." * " And the
appearance of the brightness round about it was as the ap-
pearance of. the bow that is in the- cloud in the day of rain,"
or as the appearance^ of. light when it is passing through
transparent crystal. — Ezek, chap. i. We read, further-
more, — but this time it is the prophet Daniel who sees the
vision, — "I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the
Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow,
and the hair of his head like pure wool : his throne was like
the^ fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire." — Dan,
vii, 9. A. parallel vision is recorded in the- Apocalypse,
where the meaning is, however, somewhat obscured through
the rendering of the term fwa («oa, living creatures) by the
unfortunate term "beasts." Ezekiel says (x. 20), "This is
the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by
the river of Chebar ; and I knew tJuit they were the cheru-
Mm:'

The author of the Zeniutha,t having realized the vision
of the Merkebah in his imagination,, expresses himself in
the following extraordinary language : —

" The nQn-cognizable Head is frsuned and prepared (or is to be con-
ceived) after the similitude of a skull (1) filled with crystalline dew (2).
The covering membrane (3) of this skull is completely transparent, and

* "Then went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the
elders of Israel (into the mount). And they saw the God of Israel ; and there
was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire-stone^ and as it were
the body of heaven in its clearness." — ^a:od. xxiv. 9, 10.

t- Bafobi Simon indicates very clearly, in the Idra iSuta, that he himself was
the author of the Zeniutha.

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closed ; and from it hair (4 and 5) like white wool hangs on either side
in equilibrium.*

" The supreme (6) Loving-kindness (the forehead of the Macroproso-
pus) reveals itself to the prayers of that which is below.

" Open Vision (the eyes of the Macroprosopus) slumbering never, but
observing continually (7 and 8).

^"In the superior aspect (the Macroprosopus) are two apertures (the
nostrils), through which the spirit (9) is called forth in ail.

" The aspect which is below (10) answers to the aspect of the superior
lights.

" * In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.' — Gen,
i. 1. Six (fi<n\D> shetha) created six (n^^ fi<na, bara-shih). Upon these
(six) depend all things that are below. For that which is below de-
pends upon the influences which are the Head's beard ; but the second
earth (the actual world) counts not among the six. The existing earth
is produced from another earth that bore the curse : as it is written ( Gen.
V. 21), 'From the ground which the Lord had cursed.'

" ' And the earth was without form, and void ' (1?7ai inn, thohu va
bohu, a collective potentiality of existence in a potentiality of existence) ;
* and darkness was upon the face of the deep ' ( Dlnn> thekom, the Abyss).
— Gen. i. 2.

" Thirteen (below) answer to the thirteen (influences of the beard).
Six thousand years (six numerations, or sephiroth, of the Microprosopus)
answer to the six first (the six of the Macroprosopus). The seventh
thousand years (the seventh numeration or sephirah after the third, or
Matrona, or Royalty) is apart, and over that which is vehement, and
vehement only.

" And all was desolate for twelve hours, — the hours in which the
earth was formless and empty. But the vehemency was reconstructed in
the thirteenth hour through mercy, and renewed. And all six persisted ;
for it is written, * He created ; ' and afterwards it is written, ' And the
earth uxts : ' so that the vehemency was a subsisting realit;^ (although not
an actuality, even while existing potentially only)." — The Zeniutka, chap,
i. § 10 to § 24.

* This figtlire, or symbol, is offensive to the imagination. It ought to be so.
The writers of the Kabbala intentionally select emblems that are absurd, in
bad taste, and utterly inadequate. Their emblems are mnemonic signs, or
reminders, not illustrations. Apt and beautifUl symbols almost always give
occasion to idolatrous practices. The Kabbala is so written that the mind of
the intelligent adept is repelled by the sign, and passes at once to the consid-
eration of the thing signified.

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These extracts are supposed to eoataia the essence of tjrie
Kabbala. We have traiislated them as we could, feeling
our way darkly ; and are confident that our interpretation
is nc^ very far from right.

What is this Balance* which hangs in the , place that
exists not, bearing in its scales things that are not, and are,
and shall be? What is this Supreme Form (or nature)
that involves all forms (or natures), and maintains them all ?
Who are these Kings of Edom that are, but exist not?
What are these Living Creatures, these man-headed, lion-
headed, ox-headed, and eagle-headed Sphinxes, darkly re-
ferred to in the text, and of which the prophet Ezekiel
says openly, " I knew that they were the Cherubim '' ? It
' is more than possible that we may fail to give adequate
answers to these questions. But the plan of our undertak-
ing does not require that our answers should be adequate.
The passages of which a rendering has been submitted to
the reader mean something ; for Simon ben Joohai was the
writer of them. Their obvious meanings are manifold^ and
destroy each other. The statements are obviously^ there-
fore, enigmatic. It shall be our effort to give in a plain
way, and in the ordinary language of metaphysics, such
necessarily inadequate answers to the above-recited ques-
tions^, and such partial . interpretations of the enigmas con-
tained in the extracts, as will enable us to set forth, in a
more or less satisfactory manner, the kabbdlistic theory of
the Ten SEPHiBOtH. This was the task we assigned to
ourselves in the beginning. We shall say very little of
those parts of the doctrine that are protected to-day by
sworn obligations. Let no initiate be frightened before-
hand ! We shall also fortify our own expositions with copi-
ous extracts from the Idra Eabba and the Idra Suta, in
order that our readers may be convinced that we say what
the Kabbala says, and are not passing off false coin upon
them. Our readers will, necessarily, be few in number;

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and for that reason, if for no other, we intend to treat them
fairly. The Zohar says, —

" Sometimes two Mekubbalim are found in the same city, and seven
in a kingdom : at other times, only one is found in a city, and only two
in a whole geberation."

Nevertheless, the books of the Kabbala have been con-
tinually republished, first by oral tradition fix)m generation
to generation, and then by expensive printed edition after
expensive printed edition, for the benefit of the few who
care for them : so that the doctrine has come down, almost
intact, even to the present day.

The Kahbalistic Balance.

Man knows himself to be soul and body, spontaneity and
fatality, subject and object, spirit and matter.

Spontaneity and fatality — the first regarded as Tna^cu-
liney or initiative ; and the second as feminine, or respon-
sive — are the two scales of that Universal Balance in which
all things are weighed. It is written in the Zohar, —

" When the Most Holy Elder, hidden in all occultations, willed to
create, he made all things in the form o/hiisband and wife, conditioning the
existence of opposite sexes. — Idra Suta, § 218. Wisdom (nnDn,
Chochmah) is the Father: Understanding (nS^H, Binah) is the Mother.
Wisdom and Understanding are weighed in one Balance, as male and
female, — Id. Sut., § 222. All things appear, therefore, in the form of hus-
band and wife : ivere it otherwise, nothing whatever coidd subsist. — Id. Sut.,
§ 223. And this Father and Mother are called tlie house: as it is written
{Prov. xxiv. 3), ' Through Wisdom is a house builded, and by Under-
standing it is established.' — Id. Sut., § 312. The male is a mere half-
body : so also the female. — Id. Sut., § 718. Blessings descend not upon
mutilated and defective things, but upon that which is complete, — not
upon half-things. — Id. Sut., § 723. Half-things neither subsist in eter-
nity, nor receive blessings for eternity." — Id. Sut., § 724.

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Heaven and Earth, the State and the Church, the Em-
peror and the Pope, Liberty and Authority, Revolution and
Order, the Law and the Gospel, Private Opinion and Pub-
lic Opinion, the Intuitive Method and the Inductive Method,
Poetry and Prose, Spontaneity and Fatality, Subject and
Object, Spirit and Matter, and the like, are weighed, each
over against its correlative, in that Universal Balance which
is Man and Woman, or rather Husband and Wife.

Sometimes, in examining a kabbalistic couple, we find it
difficult to determine which term is husband, and which is
wife ; but the Kabbala furnishes a test. The Zohar says, —

" All rigors that rise in the male are vehement in the beginning, and
relaxed at the end : those, however, that rise in the female, are mild in
the beginning, but vehement at the end. — Idra Rabba, § 1026. And,
were it not that these are conjoined, the world would not be able to bear
them. The Elder of elders, therefore, separates them from each other,
and then associates them that they may assuage each other.'' ^7(/. RaL,
§ 1027.

Applying this test, we judge (with, however, many mis-
givings) that Heaven is masculine, and the Earth feminine ;
the State masculine, and the Church feminine ; the Emperor
masculine, and the Pope feminine ; and so on.

The rigor that rises in the male, and that which rises in
the female, subsist in the analogy of correlative opposites.
Each implies the other, is related to the other ; and either,
without the other, would be unprovoked, unmeaning, non-
existent, and void. Each is, however, a mystery to the
other ; and each, in afl^ming itself, excludes the other : so
that the two, unassuaged, stand as a subsisting contra-
diction. This coi^tradiction is resolved when the two are
weighed against each other in the Balance, and mutuality
takes the place of reciprocal isolation. In the Balance, like
repels like, and union is established between contraries.
The theory of the Balance is, therefore, the theory of the

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reconciliation of contradictions. Now, there cannot be two
hills without a valley betweeai them ; for, if there he no val-
ley, the hills are not two hills, but the same hilL Absolute
contradiction (or tha affirma,tion that the same, thing in
the same subject both- is and is not) is a sign of nullity.
If the same thing-could be at the same time both true and
not true, and in the same sense, it* would be useless for man
to seek after truth. Kabbalistic contradictions subsist, there-
fore, never absurdly in a single term, but. always in twor
terms that answer each other : they are always relative, and
never absolute. • It is only. when two aflfixmations imply
each other as well as deny each other, assert each other as
well as exclude each other, that we know we are in the
presence of a contradiction-pregnant, and on the eve of dis-
covering a third term, in which the two discordant terms
will find their synthetic harmony. Furthermore, a single
affirmation of a .contradiction being given, and not both of
them, it is only when the given affirmation, carefully con-
sidered, presents its own refutation, and when the refutatior^,
in its turn, re-affirms the original proposition, that we have
the promise of a coming synthesis.

The Kabbdla affirms that aU thin-gs &re constructed, and
held in being, in accordance with the principle of the contra-
diction-pregnant. *' Before the Balance was, face answered
not to face, and the earth was void.'' It follows, therefore,
if the Kabbala be true, that the method of contradictions is
the auth^tic method of philosophic and scientific investi-
gation.

We permit ourselves to remark, in this- place, that a man
ought never to be regarded as being substantially the same
thing as a woman, or a woman as subai^antially the same
thing as a man, each existing as the other, but with defect:
for men and women are kabbalistic correlatives of each other,
not defects of each other; aaid their essential value consists
in their sharp reciprocal contradistinction from each other.

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Men and women ought always to be kabbalistically united
with each other in synthetic marriage, and never joined in
simple partnership. Our women's-rights people are wholly
wrong in this particular. Man divorced from woman, reli-
gion from science, love from knowledge, force from gentle-
ness, pity from justice, and the converse, are \vorse than
barren: they are destructive. Every kabbalistic couple
should be regarded as a true couple, not as two varieties
of the same thing. Men and women are analogies of each
other, not aspects of each other. The opposing terms of
such couples should be contradistinguished, not that a choice
may be made between them, not that one may be sacrificed
to the other, or subjugated by the other, but that both may
be accepted, and the two weighed against each other in the
Balance in actual marriage; for, in the kabbalistic mar-
riage, we obtain distinction without antagonism, union with-
out uniformity, order without despotism, and a complete
analysis resolved by a complete synthesis. So long as the
two terms of a kabbalistic couple stand unreconciled, they
are the occasion of sorrow, suffering, want, oppression, and
wrong ; they are the material itself of evil : but, as soon as
they are married, they generate and bring forth harmony
and beauty.

We have been able, but under cover of much darkness, to
set forth, thus far, the theory of the Kabbalistic Balance.
In this Balance the whole doctrine of the Zohar hangs. As
we go on with our exposition, the theory will become, by
degrees, clearer and clearer.

Harmony subsists by the resolution of contraries. Anal-
ogy is either sameness of law with diversity of attributes, or
it is diversity of law with sameness of attributes. Analogy
is the key that unlocks the secret of the universe. An effort
that wastes itself in the void counts not at all. That, and
that only, supports, which also resists. He that suffers,
grows ; he that enjoys, wilts. Prosperity is harder to bear

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than adversity. Evil and wrong should provoke pity, not
anger. So long as man shall remain progressive in his
nature, evil will be a condition Of his exis.tence. Evil is
necessary. Injustice, hostilityj disappointment, want, obscu-
rity, and neglect discipline human spontaneity, and enable
it to assert its own.

In disputed questions of faith, the kabbalii^t espouses
both sides of the controversy. To the kabbalist, the doc-
trine of irresistible grace on the one side, and of man's
responsibility on the other, which arrays the Calvinists
against the followers of Arminius, and the converse, is
nothing other than a contradiction-pregnant susceptible of
strict scientific solution. The first virtue of a wise man is
that of entire toleration of opinions. All men know partially
and defectively. A few men know both sides of certain
special questions. The Supreme, and he only, knows the
whole.

The Cherubim,

The word cherub* is complex, technical, and artificial.
It is composed arbitrarily of two elements : one signifying
the act of carving, or engraving ; t and the other signifying
multitudinousness. t The cherubim of the tabernacle were
not, as might be supposed from the analysis of the word,
carved, or graven, images, but were images th-at had been
hammered into shape. It is written {Exod, xxv. 13), — '

" Thou shalt make two cherubim of gold ; of beaten work shalt thoa
make them, in the two ends of the mercy-seat."

The cherubim of the temple were, however, of carved
work ; for it is written (1 Kings vi. 23-29), -*-

* ill ID • hntb, cherub.

t ^3« hr. This Hebrew element indicates distinctive marks, gravlngs,
characters ; also the act of enji^raving, and engraving-tools. It is found In. the
English words carve and cn^ave. . It also Indicates all kinds o/ excavations,
incisions, or pits : lience the English word gnve,

t d"1) rb, multitude, abundance.

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''And, within the oracle, Solomon made two cherubim of olive-tree,
each ten cubits high. . . . And he overlaid the cherubim with gold.
And he carved all the walls of the house round about toith carved figures
of cherubim and palm-trees and open flowers, within and without."

The following extract from Layard's "Nineveh" (vol. ii.
p. 352) will sufficiently describe the external form of the
kabbalistic cherubim : —

" Ezekiel saw in his vision the likeness of four living creatures, which
had four faces, four wings, and the hands of a man under their wings on
their four sides. Their faces WQre those of a man, a lion, an ox, and an
eagle. By them was a wheel, the appearance of which was, as it were,
a wheel in the middle of a wheel. It will be observed that the four foi-ms
chosen by Ezekiel to illustrate his description — the man, the lion, the
bull, and the eagle — are predsely those which are constantly found on
Assyrian monuments as religious types."

The prophet Ezekiel says (x. 8-20), —

" And there appeared in the cherubim the form of a man's hand under
their wings. . . . And every one had four faces : the first face was the
face of a cherub (or of an ox : compare i. 10) ; and the second face was
the face of a man ; and the third, the face of a lion ; and the fourth, the
face of an eagle. . . . This is the Living Creature (n^n, chifh) that I
saw under the God of Israel by the Biver Chebar; and I knew that they
were the cherubim."

It is written in the ITew Testament (Apoc, iv. 6, 7), —

''And in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were
four beasts {^ma, zoa, living creatures), full of eyes before and behind.
And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and
the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying
eagle."

In arty the evangelist Matthew is usually represented as
accompanied by a man ; the evangelist Mark, by a lion ; the
evangelist Luke, by an ox ; and the evangelist John, by an
eagle. Thus the kabbalistic cherubim are made to stand as
symbols of the four Gospels.

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The cherubim described as carved upon the walls of the
ideal temple (which was never built) had two faces only, —
the face of a young lion, and the face of a man. — Ezek.
xli. 19. It is probable that the golden calf made by Aaron^
and the golden calves set up by King Jeroboam, — one in
Beth-el and the other in Dan, — were cherubim.

The ganeral outward aspect of the cherubim is now suf-
ficiently indicated.

The particular four-faced, winged, and flying cherubim of
EzekiePs vision are the kabbalistic cherubim, whose special
enigmatic characteristics were probably borrowed by the
prophet, as symbols, from the ancient worship of Tyre and
Sidon, — a worship akin to that of Babylon, but differing
from it by being truer to the primitive Hamitic traditions.
We will dwell for a moment on this point. We read
{EzeJc, xxviii. 11, 16),—

" The word of the Lord came unto me, sayings. Son of man, take np
a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the
Lord Gtod : Thou sealest up the sum, exact in number, and perfect in
coinage. Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God : every precious
stone was thy covering, «- the sardius, the topaz, and the diamond; the
beryl, the onyx, and the jasper; the sapphire, the emerald, and the car-
buncle ; and gold. . . . Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth ;
and I have set thee so. Thoa wast upon the holy mountain of God.
Thou hast walked ap and down in the midst of the stones of fire (or
splendor). Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast
created, till iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy mer-
chandise thou hast been filled, in the midst of thee, with violence ; thou
hast sinned : therefore will I cast thee as profane out of the mountain
of God ; and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub ! from the midst
of the stones of fire."

Tyre ought certainly to have made common cause, from
the beginning, with Jerusalem, against King Nebuchad-
nezzar, and should never have allowed the two cities to be
attacked and overwhelmed in detail. Insanity was epi-
demic among the kings of the epoch. The king of Tyre

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insanely identified, in his own mind, the totality of his peo-
ple, and also his people's god, with his own person. "This,
his power, became his god." In the blind egotism of his
insanely assumed godhead, he betrayed Jerusalem to her
enemies, and thus^ broke down the barrier that had separated
between King Kebuchadnezzar and himself. After the eyes
of the king of Tyre had been fiiUy opened, by the experi-
ence of events, to the fatal consequences of his own selfish
bad faith, the prophet, with, as it were, an instinctive sense
of the proper local coloring, taunted him, and insulted him
with deliberate purpose. It is not without a sentiment of
bitter and pitiless irony, or without a distinct knowledge
that the poisoned shaft would hit, that Ezekiel addresses
the king of Tyre by the title, " O covering cherub ! "

The breastplate of judgment, suspended from the neck
of the Jewish high priest, had, in the first row, a topaz, a
sardius, and a carbuncle ; it had, in the second row, an emer-
ald, a sapphire, and a diamond; in the third row, a ligure,
an agate, and an amethyst ; and, in the fourth row, a beryl,
an onyx, and a jasper. The precious stones that were "the
covering " of the king of Tyre, were, as far as they went,
the jewels of the breastplate of judgment. The foundation-
stones of the wall of the New Jerusalem are as follows : a
jasper, a si^phire, and a chalcedony; an emerald, a sar-
donyx, and a sardius ; a chrysolite, a beryl, and a topaz ;
a chrysoprasus, a jacinth, and an amethyst. And the twelve
gates are twelve pearls. The chief god of Tyre was repre-
sented in the Tyrian temple by a perfectly clear emerald as
large as a man's two fists. The worship of stones was still
extant in Tyre at the time the prophet wrote.

It now remains for us to determine the symbolical signifi-
cation of these hammered and graven images, and to dis-
cover, if we can, why it was that the meaning multitudinous-
ness was made to enter into the very structure of the word
cherub.

.4»

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In luodem poetical usage, the cherubim appear as angels.
We may, however, dismiss at once this interpretation of the
symbol, since it receives no sanction whatever from Scrip-
ture. The Living Creatures of the Apocalypse were obvi-
ously not angels; for we read (v. 3-10), —

"And, when he had taken the book, the four living creatures (zoa)
and the four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb : and they
sang a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to
open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God
by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation / and
hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign in the
earth."

The words, " Out of every nation, kindred, tongue, and
people," give us an intimation that the symbolical Living
Creatures mentioned in Scripture are complex beings, and
that the individuab of which they are composed are nothing
other than men. The indication is confirmed by an inspec-
tion of the following among oth'^r passages : —

" Thou, O God ! didst send a plentiful rain, whereby thou didst con-
firm thine inheritance when it was weary. Thy congregation (^n^n,
chyth-ka, thy Living Creature) hath dwelt therein. — Ps. Ixviii. 9, 10.
And the Philistines were gathered together into a troop (n^nb» f^
chyehf into a Living Creature) where was a piece of ground full of len-
tils. — 2 Sam. xxiii. 1 1 . And the troop ( n^n, chyth, the Living Creature)
of the Philistines pitched in the valley of Rephaim." — ver. 13.

The books of grammar say that collective nouns, the
names of kinds and sorts, do not designate realities ; but
the books of grammar are not always of authority in mat-
ters philosophical. We must divest ourselves of the preju-
dice which causes us to see in special societies nothing but
beings of the mind, mere abstract names, serving to desig-
nate aggregations of men. There is something in every
constituted society more than the mere aggregate, the mere
unity of totality, of the individuals composing it. Is the

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state, quoad state, nothing? the church, qttoad church,
nothing ? the anny, quoad army, nothing ? the work-shop,
quoad an organization of industry, nothing? Wlien, in
the order of Providence, the organic unity of a particular
people is hroken, that people finds, to its extreme cost, that
a mere aggregation of individuals never suffices to constitute
a people. The voice of the majority of a people, or even the
voice of all its individual memhers, may he something very
different from that organic voice of the people which is (said
to he) the voice of God. To the true philosopher, society is
a LIVING CBEATUBE, endowed with an intelligence and an
activity of its own, governed hy special laws, which are
discoverahle by observation, and by observation only ; and
whose existence is manifested, not under a material aspect,
but by the close concert and the mutual interdependence
(the solidarity) of all the members of the social body.

The maxim, " The voice of the people is the voice of
Grod," is very ancient. In many of the Shemitic countries,
the collective people was the occult god of the individual
members of the people. The kings of Assyria continually
affected to identify themselves with Asshur, the common
ancestor of the whole people, and therefore the symbol of the
collective people, and the occult god of the people. Louis
XIV. said, " I am the state : " the kings of Assyria went
farther, and said, ^^ We are Assyria and Asshur." But the
claim of the Assyrian kings to divine honors seems to have
been always resisted. Self-deification was the form taken
by the royal insanity of the period.*

" God Btandeth in the congregation of the mighty
He Judgeth among the gods. . . .
I have said, Te are gods,
And all of yon children of the Most High;
But ye shall die like men.
And fall like one of the princes.
Arise, O God 1 Judge the earth :
For it is thon that shalt inherit all nations.^' — Ps. Ixxxii.

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. A CHEEUB is a hc^mmered or graven image that is enig-
matically representative of a Living Creature, — of a col-
lective man. A political meeting is a Living Creature, I)earing
the likeness of a man ; for the mass of the assembly is its
body, the moderator is its executive faculty, and the orators
and managers are the active inteUigence. A nation is a
Living Creature, whose body is composed of the mass of
citizens, whose will is organized in the executive element,
whose intelligence resides in the legislature, and whose ac-
tive conscience — that is, whose passions and instinctive
tendencies, as tetnpered down and rendered permanent by
the joint action of the memory and the legislative judgment
— resides in the judiciary. Because the individuals of a
naiiion become one by thus subsisting in relations of mutual
interdependence (of solidarity), because they are thus
brought into the form of a collective man, they actually
become a collective entity, capable of collective virtue and
crime. Nations commit national sins. And it cannot be
a^med that the Social Unity is the result of a social com-
pact ; for the actor is always prior to its acts ; and the social
compact, since it is the act and product of the Social Organ-
ism, supposes the prior existence of this Organism. No
national constitution can ever be put in operation that
does not exiat in the order of Providence, or in that of des-
tiny, before it is written on paper.

A mature people has, however, no real personality. It
ii» only while a peopla is in a condition of mental and moral
minority, while it is as yet under age, that it takes to itself
a king or an emperor, in order that it may theatrically and
fictitiously represent itself in the personality of its execu-
tive chief. The madness of a people is correlative with the
madness of its rulers. When a people becomei^ mature, its
government becomes impersonal. Self-government, or the
government of the organic people, ia equivalent to the sub-
stitution of responsible administration in the stead of gov-

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eminent. "The best government is that which goyems
least." A true society^ although it is a real entity^ although
it is a Living Creature, is never a person.

One of the two cherubim of the tabernacle was an em-
blematic representative of the collective body made up of
the children of Leah, and the other was a symbol of the
collective body made up of the children of Eachel. When
the high priest entered, once a year, into the Holy of Holies,
and there looked upon the Shechinah enthroned between the
cherubim, he saw the symbol of what niet his eyes, in its
reality, when he came back into the camp.

According to the Hebrew religion, Israel was not, in the
desert and in Palestine, as Asshur was in Assyria, the
occult god of the people, but was, on the contrary, a mere
cherub, having his station ipider the throne of the God of
Israel.*

Israel, to the minds of the inspired prophets, was a very
mysterious personage. Israel was the father of the nation.
Israel was the nation itself, — the collective child of IsraeL
Israel was also the spirit that co-ordinated the mass of the
people into one organic whole, — into one Living Creature.
Israel was Father, Son, and Spirit. In the view of the
more inspired of the prophets, Israel, as the Son, as the Is-
raelitish people itself, was a vicarious sacrifice for the na-
tions. It is written (Isa, lii. 13-liii. 11), —

" Behold, my servant shall prosper. . . .

Many shall be amazed at the sight of him.

His face is marred more than that of other men ;

And his form is so disfigured as to be scarcely homan.

So shall he deliver maruf nations,

And kings shall shut their mouths before him. . . .

He hath no comeliness to draw attention,

_j : .

* It is supposed that the setting-up of the golden calf in the desert was an
attempt to overthrow the true Hebrew religion, and to substitute the worship
of the coUective.Hebrew people, as a cherubic god, in the stead of the worship
of Jehovah.

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Nor beauty that men ehoold take pleasure in bim.

He is despised and rejected of men ;

A man of sorrows, and acqnajnt^ with grief. ...

He was wounded for our transgressions,

And broised for our iniquities.

For our peace the chastisement was Uid npon him,

And by his stripes we are healed. . . .

He shall see the travail of his soul, and be satisfied.

By his knowledge shall my righteous tervant justify many ;

For he shall bear their iniquities.''

Who is this servant that is thus smitten for the welfare
of th^ nations? Let the Scriptures themselves answer,
is written (Isa. xli. 8, 9), —

''But thou, O /snxe// art my MTtofi^,
Thou, Jaca6, whom I have chosen.
The seed of Ahraham, my friend, —
Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth.
And called from the boundaries thereof,
Saying unto thee. Thou art my servant."

And again (xliv. 1, 2), —

" Hear now, O Jacob, my servant,
And Israel whom I have chosen I
Thus saith Jehovah that made thee.
That formed thee from the womb, and will help thee :
Fear not, O Jacob, my servant, —
Jesurun, whom I have chosen I "

And again (xlix. 3), —

" Thou art my servant,

Israeli in whom I will be glorified.'*

And again (xlii. 1, 7), —

" Behold my servant, whom I uphold ;
Mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth !

1 have put my spirit npon him :

He shall bring forth judgment to the nations. . . •

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He shall not &U, nor be discouraged.

Till he have set justice in the earth ;

And distant nations shall wait for his law. . . .

I, Jehovah, have called thee in righteousness,

And will hold thee by the hand,

And will make thee a covenant to the people,

And a light to the nations,*'

Perhaps the first authentic instance, in recorded literature,
of «r complete deyelopment of the sentiment of universal
good will to man, is the one found in the words (Gen.
xii.'3), "And in thee (Ahram) s?vall all the families of
the earth he hl^sed^ Israel always regarded itself as the
chosen people, but as chosen to be the Christ of the nations,
— the instrument through which the law of Jehovah was to
go forth to all the families of the earth.

We come now to the turning-point of the Kabbala, — the
essence of the Kabbala. And we request the reader to bear
in mind, while he is reading what we are about to say, that
the writings of Mr. John Locke and of M. Condillac were
not to be found on the shelves of the book-stalls in ancient
Tyre, Sidon, Babylon, Jerusalem, and* Memphis; if they
had been found there, the demand for them; would probably
have been small. We aire disposed to defend nothing, and
to answer for nothing; for it'is our purpose, in this place, to
state, to the best of our ability^ the extraordinary doctrines
of the Kabbala in their simplest form^ to explain them as
well as we can, and then leave them to defend themselves.

If Asshur, Mizraim, Israel, Gog, Magog, and the. like,
are to be recognized as covering cherubs, then much more
] is Adam (the collective-man. Humanity) to be recognized
as a superior covering cherub. Above the heads of the
cherubim, Ezekiel saw in his vision the likeness of a firma-
ment, and over the firmament the appearance of a throne,
*^and^on the throne the likeness of the appearance, as it
were^. of A man." The Kabbala affirms that the ideal Hu-

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manity, the Adam which was from the heginning; before
ever the earth was, and who is above, is the First-bom of
the Ancient of days, and that by him the heavens and
the earth were created. The Kabbala affirms, further, that
Adah, — the first Adam, Adam Kadmon, — unlike other
cherubim, has a distinct personal existence ; that he is, in
truth, the Mighty God, existing from eternity, anterior to
both individual men and the visible worlds, and the effica-
cious cause through which both man and the universe exist.
We will adduce, six or eight pages farther on, some of the
reasons brought forward by the Kabbala to sustain its singu-
lar statement, that God, as Creator, assumes the form of a
man. The Kabbala differs, in almost every respect, from
the modem theory of Positivism ; but the kabbalists resem-
ble a portion of the positivists in one particular, inasmuch
as they set forth their doctrine as " the Religion of Hu-
manity."

According to the Kabbala, God is known by his names
only. Each one of the Hebrew names of God is a special
revealed aspect of the Nameless One. Of the Nameless
One man knows nothing whatever, save the bare fact that
he exists. [This kabbalistic truth has been recently and
quite independently rediscovered by Mr. Herbert Spencer,
who has published it to the world in the beginning of his
book of " First Principles."] The Scriptures are explicit in
affirming that "no man can see God, and live." Zophar,
one of Job's comforters, inquires, " Canst thou by search-
ing find out God ? " St. Paul says of the Supreme, that
he dwells in light unapproachable ; and that no eye hath
seen him, or can see him. John the Baptist testifies, say-
ing, " No man hath seen G^d at any time : the only-begot-
ten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath de-
clared him."

The Nameless One is called, in the Kabbala, qiD l^i<
(^n-Soph), the Limitless, or Name no name. For that

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which is known and named^ is known and named, not from
its suhstance, but from its limitations; and scientific men
correctly aver, that whatsoever is -unlimited,^ undefined, un-
classifiable, is necessarily outside of natural science. Among
the names of God* which are known to men, the miost occult
is r^^a^ (JEhiek, I AM),ihe AiKjieht of days, called by
the kabbalists niTD (Kether, the Grown): this i& the first
sephirah, numeration, or revealed aspect of God; The next
in order is designated by the kabbalists as n73Sn (Ckok-
mah, Wisdom), the First-born of the Ancient of days, and
identified by the kabbalists with the ideal or principiating
MAK, the Adam who is above : this is the second sephi-
rah. The third sephirah is rta^a (j^inaA; Understanding),
which may be identified with the Greek Logos. ' Ohokmah
is masculine: Binah is feminine.
It is written in the Zohar, — >

" And the Lord said (Cren. vi. 7), 'I will destray mim whom I ha^e
created from the face of the earth ; both man and beast, and the creep-
ing thing, and the fowls/ &c. Here a distinction is made between the
man who is of the earth, and the man who is above ; for the earthly man
is not alone indicated in this pluce, since the earthly man without the
heavenly man cannot be. For, without fi^ttDft (Chokma, Wisdom, th<>?
man who is above, the authentic Adam), all things would be occulted^
... If this 0*12t (Adam) should not exists idaepe- would be no world. ^ ...
This Wisdom that is hidden (this, true Adam) ins^titutes and corrobo*s
rates the form of man, that man maj be established in his own place. . . .
This true Adam is the inward form, the spirit. . . . And in this inward
form, which is seated on the throne, the perfection of all things appears.
As it is written {Ezek. i. 26), ' Above the heads of the Living Creatures
wafi the likeness of » throne, . . . and on the throne the appearance 43f>
a Man/ &c. It is also written {1km. vii. 13), ' I saw>in the night, vis-
ions, and, behold, one like unto the Son of man came with the clouds
of heaven, and came unto the Ancient of days. . . . And there was
given to him dominion and glory, and a kingdom. . . . His dominion
is an everl^ting dominion that shall never pass Avray, and his kingdom
that which shjdl not twdestroyed."/ -r-/(i. Z?a&., § 1.119 to §:lldOf

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Man^ the Form of All Things.

Some men ask, ^^How can the chasm which separates
between perception and the object of perception be bridged
over ? How can it be made certain, for instance, when men
feel and see a tree, that there is a real tree in nature an-
swering to the impressions made upon the senses?" Other
men reply to them by asking, " How will you bridge over a
chasm that never existed ? " Perception is an act of life^ con-
taining in itself, synthetically, the perceiver and the thing
perceived. When a man perceives a tree, he perceives that
he perceives it ; and, when he perceives that he is perceiv-
ing, he distinguishes between the perceiving subject and the
object perceived, but without separating them. The subject
and object of perception are weighed over against each
other, and synthetically married, in the Kabbalistic Bal-
ance; and, when they are taken out of the Balance, the
perception ceases to exist.

Outward objects make pictures of themselves on the retina
of the eye : but no living subject was ever conscious of any
picture on the retina of his own eye ; and no living man
ever passed, by induction, from the conscious perception of
such a picture in his own eye to the affirmation of the out-
ward existence that produced it. If there is no direct com-
munication between the spul and the world, between spirit
and matter, perception is impossible. If the soul cannot
directly perceive an outward object because the soul is spir-
itual and the object is material, then the soul cannot (as, in
fact, it does not) perceive the picture on the retina of the
eye ; for that also is material. Neither can the soul perceive
a picture of the picture; for that, in like manner, is afflicted
with the taint of matter. The same may be said of a pic-

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ture of a picture of the picture; and so on to infinity.
There is no chasm to be bridged. Perception is direct;
and the supposed chasm, if any be supposed, is a mere noth-
ing gratuitously created by the imagination.

What is matter? It is that which affects the senses. It
is that which men see, hear, taste, smell, and feel. But to
affect the senses is to act : even to affect the sense of touch
by mere resistance is to act ; for resistance is action. Who
knows any thing about the mysterious transcendental sub-
stance that is said to underlie all the activities of matter ?
If it exist at all, it exists not for man ; or, at the least, it
exists not for man's senses ; for (being by its nature inert)
it produces no impression upon the senses : it exists, there-
fore, to man, as a mere abstraction cognizable by the mind.
Matter is revealed by its activities only ; and, to man, it is
force. What is spirit ? Spirit is revealed by its activities
only : it is force. Matter and spirit are both of them forces.
There is no reason why the two should not meet directly, in
conjunction ; and they do so meet. Every act of sensation
shows a direct conjunction of matter and spirit.

Man is the Kabbalistic Balance. The human body is
the theatre in which the conjunction and synthesis of the
activities of the soul, with the activities of external nature,
take effect. When a man feels any thing with the ends of
his fingers, does he feel the feeling, or the feeling of the
feeling, or the feeling of the feeling of the feeling ? or does
he feel the thing ? He feels the thing.

Things not related to other filings exist potentially only.
When they come forth from potentiality, they do so by
entering into relations. No isolated thing exists actually,
or can so exist. The interdependence of existing things
upon each other is called their solidarity. All things exist
in solidarity ; not otherwise. Things may be transmuted in
solidarity, — coal may take the form of ashes and gas, water
that of ice or of steam, sugar that of alcohol and residue.

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a&cl' so on^ — p.or material things may subsist, for a time, in a
state of abeyance; but if any portion of matter, however
inconsiderable, should be literally annihilated, the whole
universe would, at once, collapse, back into, the aboriginal,
doubly-occulted invisible Abyss of potentiality in poten-
tiality (thohu va bohu). All things subsist in; .ever-
changing relations to each other, and not otherwise.
■ Man is so related to the universe, and the universe is so
related to man, tiiat the two are aspects and conditions of
each other. .Neither can exist without the other. That
kabbalistic. form of man which is also the form of the unir
verse is nothing other than. the adaptation of the universe
to the existence of man, and of man to the existence of the
universe.

It is the doctrine of the Kabbala,that the universe first*
existed in the condition of potentiality in potentiality, after-
wards in that of simple potentiality; and that the worlds
were brought forth, finally^ out.oi potentiality into actuality
in the^bond of solidarity, by the appearance, in actuality, of
Adam, Humanity,.the Collective Man. It is for this rea-
son that the Adam irom above is frequently characterized as
the Maker of the worlds, or as. he by whom the heavens and
the earth are created. It is written in the Zohar, —

''Before the Ancient of d£^s had assumed his forjn, nothing was
framed that was then to be franked ; and all the worlds were void (existed
potentially only)." — Id. Rah., 518.

"Before the Elder of elders assumed his form, he sculptured the
Kings, arranged the Kings, and gave proportions to the Kings ; btU they
subsutednot.. ■ And this is signified in the words ( Gen. xxxyi. 32), ' These
are the kings jthat reigned in the land of Edom before there reigned any
king over the children of Israel.* In the land of Edom ; that is, in the
place which consists wholly in rigor." — Id. Rab., 513, 514.

" Why were the ancient worlds unable to subsist ? Because man was

* Loglcuny first, not ohronologically; for the evoltttlons here spoken of
.take place outside of time.

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not yet made. The constitution of man contains all things in its form ;
and, in accordance with man's form, all things may be disposed and dis-
tributed. — W. Rab.y § 523, § 524. It is written (Ezek. i. 26), 'And
above the firmament that was over the heads of the Living Creatures
was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire-stone ; and
over the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a
MAN upon it' As the appearance of a man, because man includes all
forms. As the appearance of a man, because man includes all names.
As the appearance of a man, because man includes all mysteries that
were spoken and set forth before the creation of those first worlds which
subsisted not." —Id. Rah., § 511, § 512.

" These kings that reigned in the land of Edom, the place where aH
rigor is found, were of feminine constitution. — Id. Rab., 984. And
they did not persist : they were not utterly abolished ; but they did not
persist ; for they were from that part where all is feminine, and wherein
there is no masculinity at all." — Id. RoIk, 991.

" Outside of the constitution of man, nothing subsists. The ancient
worlds were not abolished, but were removed out of their own forms un-
til the form of Adam should appear. — Id. Rab., 525, 526. When Adam
was made, the ancient worlds were called forth again, but under other
names; and were brought into a permanent state through those new
names ; so that they now appear in their place, but with names other
than they had at first." — /«?. Rab., 531.

" Before the worlds were made, face answered not to face : and there-
fore the first worlds were void and waste ; for the first worlds were desti-
tute of form. Those worlds appeared, shone, and were extinguished ; as,
when the red-hot iron on the blacksmith's anvil is smitten with the ham-
mer, sparks blaze forth on every side, shine for an instant, and then go
out. They were destroyed, and went out, because the Most Holy Elder
' had not produced forms, and because the workman was not yet at his
work. — Id. Rab., § 420 to § 424. Afterwards the workman applied him-
self to his work, assuming form. — Id. Rab., § 427. Ancient is the habi-
tation of the Elder of elders ; and he sits on the throne of the sparks
that he may subjugate them." — Id. Rab., § 40.

It is obvious from the context that these kings of Edom
axe nothing other than arbitrary kabbalistic signs, or enig-
matic symbols, denoting the worlds that were first made,
but which subsisted not. Elsewhere, the Zohar speaks,
much to the same effect, as follows, of these kings of
Edom: —

6»

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' ' '' Before' ihe Blder^of elders, the most biddeii of hidden .'thifig«y ins^*
tated the forms of the Kings, and of the diadems of diadems, -there was
neither- beginning nor ending. The Elder of elders, therefore, exca-

. rated, and instituted proportions in himself, and spread before himself a
reil; and in that veil h» sculptaured and distributed the kings in their

r due proportions ;. but thej did not subsist. And this is what is written
( Gen. xxxvi. :29) : ;' These ai» 4he kings that reigiled in the land of
Edom,' &c. -And the names were, called of all those kings that were
aculptured; but not one of them subsisted." r-ridl.i2a6., § 30 to § 33.

Thus far, the writers of the Zohar hare spoken of the
influence of the Collective Adam in establishing and main-
taining the constitution of the universe. It would appear
from other passages that they attribute no mean impor-
tance to the influence of individual men and women in sus-
tftining or changing th« order of nature. We quote one of
these passages : —

''R. Simon said to .the companioasj When that veil was, et2Rpanded
which you,«atw above us, I beheld all forms appearing in it, and shining
in their places, -r- Id. Bab*, § 494.. I see those forms shining now above it,
waiting for the words of our mouths, that they may be crowned, and
each one taken to its; place ; and, as they are explained by our mouths,
they come forward^ and are crowned, and are. disposed in the order deter-
. mined by our speech, -r- /</. Rab., § 501* Blessed are ye in the world to
eome j for all the words that have come out of your mouths are holy and
true, neither declining to the right hand nor to the left." -^Id. Rob., § 504.

This last pass£^ge bears upon the kabbalistic theory of
magic. To persons ignorant of the fact of universal soli-
darity, and who deny the immediate contact of spirit with
matter, magical changes in the order of society, or in that
of the universe, seem, from the very nature of the case, to
.. be impossible. The Mekubbalim have always, nevertheless,
justly or unjustly, had the reputation of being magicians
and miracle- workers. In magical processes, man first real-
izes changes in his own body, especially changes in his
nervous system ; and then through his body, which is itself
a part of nature^ he affects the order either of human soci-

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ety €ft of the material universe. . But, iii the solidarity of
nature, action and re-action are equal. Man is, therefore,
himself th^e straining and groaning fulcrum whereon he rests
his oww lever when he exerts magic power. He loses in
effort, suffering, or humiliation, all that he gain» in suprem-
acy* In realizing the practical fruit of his exertions, he
pays for it precisely all that it is materially worth to him.
It appears, therefore, that meaa who work magically are in-
duced to do so hy motives of scientific curiosity,- of disinter-
ested benevoleuce, or of wanton and deep-seated malignir
ty, not self-interest. It is reported that such of the kah-
balists as have had the reputation of- working miracles
have all of them died suddenly, and nearly dl of them
violei^t deaths. Every exertion of human activity, outside
the normal channels of old-fashioned labor,. breeds violent
and dangerous re-£kctions. We entertain the suspicion that
honest labor is the only genuine magic
. The problem of remunerative 1 abor — - whick involves the
exceptional and world-famous problem of man's will and
efficacy, and, consequently, the problems of his freedom,
Mid of bis possible merit and> demerit, to say nothing of the
contradictions inherent in the nature of property (which is
a- product of labor) — is essentially kabbalistic. It is a
Special sub-section of the general theory of magic.
' It is not difficult to justify the ' methods of the Kabbala
from the standpoint of modern physical science. According
to the scientific men, a thing- is known when it has been
compared with certain other things,, distiiiguished from cer^-
tain others, and classed as of this or that order. An object
is siaid to be little known when it has little in common with
things oi which experience has been had, and well known
when it has much, &c. A thing is said to be completely
known when its community with other things is recognized
as complete, and completely unknown when there is no rec-
ognized community at alL The scientific method, consists

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of observation, comparison, induction, verification by experi-
ment, &c. But observations and experiments are acts that
take place in time ; and, between such acts, intervals fre-
quently occur. Induction is built up from a comparison of
the results of observations or of experiments, or both ; and
such comparison involves an exercise of the memory. Now,
upon what solid ground does the scientific man base his
confidence in his own mental processes ? For example, how
does he know that events suggested to him by his memory
really occurred ? If the human mind testify of herself, her
testimony is not valid. The scientific man, obviously, bases
his scientific truth and certainty upon principles of whose
validity he has no scientific certainty whatever. To that
extent, therefore, he is entirely afioat. The scientific man
escapes this difficulty by saying that his knowledge is human
knowledge, not absolute knowledge; that he accepts his
natural faculties for better or worse, studying the laws of
their action, and guarding himself, to the best of his ability,
against error. He affirms that his postulates and conclu-
sions are true, provided the human faculties he possesses,
and the natural processes of reasoning, are trustworthy; not
otherwise.

The real method of the Kabbala is identical with the
method of modern science. The object investigated by
modem science is the world of nature ; while that investi-
gated by the kabbalistic philosophy is, primarily, the spirit-
ual world, and afterwards the material world as dependent
upon, and affected by, the spiritual world. The o^ects irv'
vestigated differ : the metlwd of investigation is the same.

The Kabbala implicitly affirms, as postulates, a conviction
of man's existence as a sentient and thinking being; s^
confidence in the evidence of the senses as verified by;the
understanding; a conviction that every event must hare
a cause, and a cause adequate to the effect ; and, finally, a
confidence in the uniformity of the operations of spirit and

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matter^ or that the same caase^ acting in the same circum-
stances) will always produce th« same effect.

The-Kabbala claims to be that spontaneous philosophy
which man, quoad man, naturally affirms now, always has
affirmed, and always will affirm so long as man is man.
The worlds affirmed by the Kabbala are worlds known to
man, — worlds upon which man has set the seal of his own
nature, — worlds related to man, and of which man is the
.authentic form. Spinoza says there are an infinite number
of worlds, and that two only of them all are known toman,
— the world of space, and the world- of thought. Spinoza is
more knowing than the Kabbala ; for the Kabbala knows
nothing of things whereof man is naturally ignorant.
There is nothing in the Kabbala that is not given in the
nature of man.

The Kabbala affirms implicitly, as a postulate, that every
event must have an adequate cause ; and that the same
cause, acting in the like circumstances, always produces
like effects. In so affirming, the Kabbala affirms the reality
of the &ct of causation. The Kabbala also asserts, by im-
plication, that, naturally admitting the fact of causation,
the human mind instinctively affirms the existence of God
as Creator of the heavens and the earth. God as Creator,
is, according to the Kabbala, God in one of his names, and
that not his highest name. This name (the Creator) is
anthropomorphic. Man can conceive of God as he existed
without the worlds, before the creation: he thus forms a
conception of God as the Ancient of days, as the Elder of
elders, — a name higher than that of Gk»d as Creator of the
world* The name ^hieh, I AM, the Elder of elders, which
is the highest given among men, is still anthropomorphic.
If ^ man, by the process of abstr^tion, take away all ele-
ments of human form fix)m his conception of the Ancient
of days, his thought falls back upon that real Nothing
which is the Nameless One, — ^iirSoph. When man, in

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meditating upon God, soars above God's names, his thought
becomes lost ; for he meditates upon that which is, but exists
not. Man knows nothing, and can conceive of nothing,
that is absolutely outside of his own form.

Man was created in the image of God ; not in the image
of the Nameless One, however, who has no image, but in the
image of God as known by his names. We read in the
Zohar, —

" Man sabsists throagh that which is analogous to himself, and not
otherwise. Bat what is analogous to man ? The Holy Name. There-
fore it is written {Gen. ii. 7), 'Jehovah Elohim created man.' Man
wa« created in the full name, which is Jehovah Elohim, and analogous
to man. — 7c?. Rah,, § 794, § 795. Man, therefore, is the form that com-
prehends all things." — 7(f. Rob., § 799.

The name of God, as Creator of the universe, is, accord-
ing to the Kabbala, as we have alreadj'^ had occasion to
remark, Chokmah, Wisdom. Chokmah is the second
sephirah. The kabbalistic conception of Wisdom, the Cre-
ator of the worlds, working, as the Second Sephirah, in sub-
ordination to the Ancient of days, is supposed to have ori-
ginated in the following passages of Scripture : —

" The Lord by Wisdom hath founded the earth ;
By Understanding hath he established the heavens."

Prov. iii. 19.

"The Lord possessed me (Wisdom) in the beginning of his way,
Before his works of old.
From eternity was I anointed
From the beginning.
Before the earth was.

While the Abyss {Heh, Thekom) was not, was I brought forth;
While the fountains, heavy with waters, were not as yet.
Before the mountains wer«k settled.
Before the hills, was I brought forth ;
While as yet he had not made the earth,
Nor the open places, nor the fruitful soil.
When he established the heavens, I was there;

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When he set a circle on the face of the deep ;
When he spread the clouds above ;
When he strengthened the fountains of the Abyss ;
When he gave his decree to the sea,
That the waters should not pass his commandment ;
• When he laid the foundation of the earth, —
Then was I by him as one brought up with him ;
And I was his delight day by day,
Rejoicing always before him,
Rejoicing in the perfection of his earth ;
And my delights were with the children of men."

Proo. viii. 22-31.

Now, since God does all things wisely, and since Wisdom
is always tlie same, God's method in creation never substan-
tially varies. What men call the unvarying laws of na-
ture, are, in reality, nothing in themselves ; for they are
mere aspects of God's unvarying manner of action. The
sum of these laws, of these persisting aspects of the divine
action, is the Greek Logos ; hut this sum is not at all the
Hebrew Word, or Wisdom. Wisdom is before its own
effects, and before the unvarying aspects of its own opera-
tions. The Hebrew Word is God himself, as that sponta-
neous Divine Wisdom, as that Heavenly Man, that Creator
of the heavens and the earth, of whose personal workings
the impersonal Greek Logos is the ideal resultant and rec-
ord, only.

Force and Law are two different things. The Force of
gravitation, for instance, is the mysterious efficacy by which
material things naturally approach each other. The Law
of gravitation, on the other hand, is this : " The force of
gravitation acts always with intensities inversely propor-
tional to the distances which separate gravitating bodies."
Law determines forms, recurrences of phenomena, and the
nature of evolutions. Every thing thrives, if it thrive at
all, in obedience to the law of its kind. Lily-plants never
become transfigured into those that bear roses, or into those

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that bear violets; and neither the seeds of the rose, nor
those of the violet, ever give birth to lily-plants. The twig
of a plum-tree grafted into a peach-tree is fed by the same
soil, air^ light, and moisture, which feeds the peach-twigs
that surround it ; but the twig of the plum-tree will. always
remain true to the law of its kind, will triumpL over the
necessities of its mere situation, and will always bear
plums, just as it would have done if it had remained in its
parent tree. The bark, fibres, leaves, fruit, of the plum-
twig, ar€ always the bark, fibres, leaves, fruit, of the plum-
tree, and never those of the peach-tree.

The Hebrew Word is Force. The Greek Word is * Law.
The Greek philosophers never suspected their Eternal Logos
of possessing personality, and of being a rn^an. The He-
brew Word is a heavenly man, — ^ Adam Kadmon. The
attempt to interpret Hebrew mysteries in the light of Gfeek
philosophy has never brought forth any thing dther than
either nullity or confusion. In matters of high theology,
Israel and Javan never understand each other*

The Christian religion, Hamitic-Shemitic in its origin,
but generally rejected by the Shemites and' Hamites, has
become almost exclusively Aryan by adaptation, radical
transformation, and adoption. The typical Aryan-Chriis-
tians— ^the ultra-protestants -—^receive their religion at sec-
ond-hand ; but they receive it defectively, since they receive
with it neither the key of prophecy, nor th€i wand- of mira-
cles. Many of the .original dogmas of Ghristianity^dogmM
akin to those of the Kabbala^ have dropped out of ' modern
theology ; and ^ dogmas alien to the primitive system have
been added. It is matter for surprise that Aryan-Chris-
tians, Irving by a borrowed religion, --^ a religion whose most
essential mysteries are inexplicable from the Aryan stand-
point, — should see their way clear, as they do see it, to taunt
the Shemites and Hamites with alleged intellectual^ moral,
and spirituiU inferiority. ^>

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The Christian religion was, when it was first preached,
foolishness to the Greeks, and to the Jews a stumhling-
block. The Greeks laughed when they first heard of it.
The possibility that the Word should " become flesh " was
not in the conditions of their theory. To say that the Eter-
nal Logos had become flesh, was, in the opinion of the
philosophers, like saying that the intrinsic nature of the cir-
cle had suddenly assumed the form of a square. Christian-
ity presented itself to the cultivated Greek mind, not as a
stumbling-block, but as sheer absurdity. With the Jews
the case was different. To men like Saul of Tarsus,
thoroughly instructed in the occult theology of the Hebrews,
Christianity was not foolishness, but, on the contrary, some-
thing fiill of danger to the Jewish state and religion. The
new Christian doctrine, from the standpoint of the occult
theology, was perfectly logical and consistent. There was
no defect whatever in the theory. All turned upon a qites-
tion of historical fact to he determined hy evidence. The
Jews said, ''Is it true that Jesus was really an incarna-
tion of the Celestial Wisdom, of the Maker of the worlds,
of the Man who is above? ^^ Christians of the school of St.
Paul answered by affirming the resurrection of Jesus from
the dead, and his visible ascension into heaven in the pres-
ence of then surviving witnesses.* The apostle Paul says, —

" Christ was buried, and rose again the third day according to the
scriptures ; and was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve : after that, he
was seen of above five hundred brethren at once ; of whom the greater part
remain unto this present , but some are fallen asleep. After that, he was
seen of James ; then of all the apostles. And, last of all, he was seen of
me also, as of one bom out of due timet ... If Christ be not risen,

* This answer, though very convincing, is, after all, not precisely to the point.
The fact that Jesus rose from the dead does not suffice to prove, of itself
alone, the fact of his pre-existence in eternity, as^he Maker of the worlds.

t Paul had his theological training under Gamaliel, and under the Mekub-
balim. He never saw Jesus in the flesh, but saw him in a vision, on the way
to Damascus, after the resurrection. He was never subjected, as the other
apoBtles had been, to the human influences of the Grand-Master of the Ideal;

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then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we
are found false witnesses of Crod ; because we have testified of God that
he raised up Christ." — 1 Car. xv. 4-15.

It was with no reminiscence of the Greek doctrine of the
Word which he had learned at Tarsus, but in the distinct
apprehension of a doctrine far more profound, — the occult
Hebrew doctrine of the Word, — that Paul said (1 Cot,
XV. 47), " The first man is of the sarth, earthy : the second
man is the Lord from heaven." It was in the same high
presence that he said, respecting the Lord from heaven, —

" He is the image of the invisible God, the First-bom of every crea-
ture. For by him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are
in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or
principalities, or powers : all things were created by him and for him :
and he is before all things, and by him all things consist." — Cd(m.
i. 15-17.

This enumeration of thrones, dominions, principalities,
and powers, and the other salient points of the phraseology,
are, all of them, in the highest degree kabbalistic. Per-
haps the passage is a lost fragment of the Kabbala, quoted
by the apostle, but with an incidental interpretation from
his own point of view.

That a man should be raised up who could write as St.
Paul wrote is conceivable ; but that he should have found
communities, scattered all over the Eoman empire, ready
to receive his letters, and competent to read them under-
standingly and to fairly appreciate them, is matter for sur-
prise. The fact of his letters being so received and appreci-
ated would appear to prove that the characteristic occult
doctrines of the Hebrew theology were widely spread
among adepts at the time the apostle wrote.

The great schism in the early Church occurred while
Paul was still living. Important elements of the kabbal-
istic doctrine passed, with Paul's interpretation and appli-

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cation of them, into the Apostolic Church of the Gentiles.
Many of the Meknhhalim refused, however, to accept
Paul's statement that Jesus is the Christ, the incarnation
of the Word. . The Kabbala refused to abdicate in the
presence of the new religion. The Jewish tradition, but in
its most moderate form, became the inspiration of the
Ebionitic Christians ; and the Greek doctrines, associated
with other Aryan doctrines from Persia and India, furnished
occasion for the rise of the more noted heretical sects.

When the Greek theologians gave Japhetic expression
to the original Shemitic-Hamitic dogmas of Christianity,
which they did in their discourses, and by means of trans-
lations from Syriac into Greek, they unwittingly falsified
the system. When they said and wrote that the Son (the
Hebrew Chokmah) was made flesh, they tacitly meant to
say, and were understood to say, that the Greek Logos (the
Hebrew Binah, the impersonal Daughter) was made flesh.*
This misapprehension created, from the beginning, a dis-
astrous confusion in Christian theology, of which the effects
are distinctly visible at the present day.

In the Catholic theology, which, upon the whole, has
remained logical and consistent, Binah has become embod-
ied in the Blessed Virgin full of grace, whose personality is
exclusively human. The Catholic Church departs from
the early faith, if it depart from it at all, by excess, and
not by defect. The Catholic Church teaches all that there
is in Christianity. It is not for us to say that it teaches
nothing more.

It has become our fixed conviction, from reflection on the
inhering nature of the case, from a careful examination of

* Chokma is Son In respect to the Elder of elders, and Father In respect to
individual men and women : in like manner, Binah (Understanding) is Daugh-
ter in respect to the Elder of elders, and Mother in respect to, &c. The Zohar
says, " Thou shalt call Wisdom thy Father, and Understanding thy Mother."
And again : ^^ Wisdom is the Father; Understanding is the Mother : and these
two are weighed in one Balance, as male and female."

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the opinions expressed by the different writers of the New
Testament, and from listening to expositions of the authen-
tic doctrines of the Church, that Paul's theories are* radi-
cally and disastrously defective. The general system which
flows from the theory of divine evolutions, and from the
affirmation that the personality of the second sephirah is
the personality of Jesus, is a half-interpretation of Christi-
anity, and is not at all adequate to the moral and practical
purposes of a sufficient creed. Paul's system (defective in
morality, and in internal evidence of its own truth, rather
than in the matter of mere logic) is the system usually
adopted by Christians affecting utter and unreasoning ortho-
doxy, and who receive, as such, their belief without rational
investigation. The main practical difficulties of Paul's
system are these : It is usually held uninteUi^ently by its
advocates ; it is easily learned by its opponents, who often
take its advocates by the flank, and in very unexpected oc-
currences ; it teaches justification by faith without works,
that is to say, it makes a substitution of arbitrary justifica-
tion by the covering-over and non-counting of sin, in the
stead of.sanctification through amendment of life and the
remission of sinfulness ; it presents every particular conver-
sion as a special miracle ; it presents every supposable fact
of damnation as having its cause and origin in the fore-
knowledge and predeterminate counsel of God ; it presents
the at-one-ment as consisting, on the one side, in tjie pun-
ishment of the innocent, which is an outrage on the moral
sentiments, 'and, on the other side, in the counting of
scoundrels as though they were honest men, which is
another outrage; it confounds man's reason, by creating
an issue between God's word in nature and God's word in
scripture ; it presents God as the voluntary author of sin ;
it naturally awakens hostility to Christianity by calling
God's justice in question ; and it makes atheists among
the unconverted. In it, as an exposition of the principles

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of Christianity by the Kabbala, the Kabbala spoils Christi-
anity^ and Christianity spoils the Kabbala.

The Pauline doctrine against that of the eariy Gnostics,
and the converse; the doctrine of St. Augustin against
Manichseism, and the converse ; Calvinism against Socinian-
ism, and the converse, — are three forms of one and the same
contradiction-pregnant. The same motive — the alleged
impossibility of a direct and immediate intercourse, union,
and welding of spirit with matter, and of the infinite with
the finite — which induced the Gnostics and the Mani-
chaBans to deny Christ's humanity, induces, to-day, the
Socinians to deny his divinity. Calvinism refutes Socin-
ianism, and, at the same time, calls it into being, and con-
solidates it : Socinianism refutes Calvinism ; and yet, with-
out Calvinism, Socinianism would have no reason for exist-
ing. Calvinism is the masculine term of this kabbalistic
couple, and Socinianism is the feminine term. The lofty
but peculiar metaphysical doctrine which is expounded in
the Gospel of St. John, and in neither of the other Gos-
pels, is the synthetic resolution of the contradiction-preg-
nant presented by the problem of the personality of Jesus.

It seems to be generally assumed by readers of the New
Testament, that the sublime parts of St. John's Gospel are
addressed exclusively to the religious sentiment. This is
an error. The most transcendently spiritual passages of
St. John's Gospel are precisely the parts of the New Testa-
ment which are the most intelligible. This error, and the
ordinary natural instinctive antipathy of spirituallj^-minded
persons to pure metaphysics, have conspired to cause the
doctrine of St. John's Gospel to remain occult in the Church.

The doctrine of the Kabbala and that of the New Testa-
ment are neither hostile to each other, nor yet the same. If
it be deemed requisite to find the effectual point of contact
of the two, we must look for it, not where the school of

St Paul places it, but in the theory of the Kabbalistic
6«

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Balance. The school of St. John, subsequent both logi-
cally and chronologically to that of St. Paul, corrects and
completes the doctrine of St. Paul. The theory of Life,
as it is expounded by the school of St. John, is the trans-
figuration of the kabbalistic theory of the Balance. St.
John's doctrine carries "its witness in itself;" for the
relations of its parts are perfectly logical, and the essential
facts on which it is based may be verified, to every requi-
site extent, by each believer in his own private experience :
" If any man will to do God's will, he shall know of the
doctrine, whether it be of God." — John vii. 17.

There is nothing new in the morality taught by Jesus.
Men were 'aware of the fact, before Jesus came, that God
is the universal Father. David says (P$, ciii. 13), "Like
as a father pitieth his children, so Jehovah pitieth them
that fear him." The following passages show plainly that
Moses and the prophets recognized God as a Father : —

" Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise ? is he
not thy Father that hath owned thee ? hath he not made thee and' estah-
lished thee "? — Deut. xxxii. 6. Doubtless thou art our Father, though
Abraham be ignorant of us : thou, Lord ! art our Father ; our Re-
deemer from everlasting is thy name — Isa. Ixiii. 16. But now,
Lord ! thou art our Father : we are the clay, and thou our potter ; and
we all are the work of thy hand. — Isa. Ixiv. 8. Have we not all one
Father ? hath not one God created us ? — Mai. ii. 10. Zion said,
The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a
woman forget her sucking-child, that she should not have compassion on
the son of her womb ? Yea, they may forget ; yet will I not forget
thee. — Isa. xlix. 14, 15. As one whom his Mother com^rteth, so
shall Jehovah comfort you ; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem." —
Isa. Ixvi. 13.

We know that it is written in the New Testament,
" Ye have heard that it hath heen said (in the law), Thou
shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemj-." But
Jesus never spoke those words. They are inexcusably
calumnious.

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Moses says (Exod, xxiii. 4, 6), —

" If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thon shalt
bring it back to him again ; and if thou see the ass of him that hateth
thee lying under his burthen, and wouldest forbear to help him, thou
shalt surely help him."

Solomon says {Prov. xrv. 21, 22), —

" If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat ; and, if he be
thirsty, give him water to drink : for thou shalt heap coals of fire on his
head " (thou shalt cover him with burning shame), " and the Lord will
reward thee" (by bringing him to repentance).

The following provisions of the Mosaic law were proba-
bly in the mind of the writer of the above-quoted interpo-
lated passage of the New Testament ; for we are convinced
that the objectionable words are an interpolation : —

"Thou shah not put forth to thy brother at 6iiw^ (or interest),—
biting of money, biting of victuals, biting of any thing which is suscepti-
ble of biting : to a foreigner thou shalt put forth at biting ; but to thy
brother thou shalt not put forth at biting'* — Deut. xxiii. 19, 20.

The modem arbitrary distinctions between interest and
usury were unknown to Moses and the prophets. In their
view, interest and usury were the same thing. The one
and the other were simply that which, in the relation of
borrowing and lending, " hiteth like a serpent.'' Moses did
not believe in the utility of borrowed capital on which
interest is paid, or in the expediency of public debts which
mortgage a whole country to strangers.

David says (Ps. xv.), —

"Lord, . . . who shall dwell in thy holy hill? . . .
He that lendeth not out his money at biting I "

The precept of " the Law " may be thus paraphrased : —

Unto fordgners thou shalt lend out thy money at usury ;
But thou shalt not take interest of thy brother :

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So shall the nations round about thee be mortgaged unto thee.
And thou shalt not be mortgaged unto them ;
And thou shalt have dominion over them,
And they shall not have dominion over thee.

The rich man, who, being in hell, saw Lazarus in Abra-
ham's bosom, is supposed by the commentators — probably
because no special offence is charged against him — to have
been condemned to punishment for lending' money to hig
brethren at hiting, or interest. If the rich man and his
relatives had listened effectually to Moses and the prophets,
they would not have put out their money at interest to any
but aliensi from the commonwealth of Israel.

The difference between the new law, as it is now gener-
ally interpreted, and the old law, is this : The Christian,
by the new law, may " bite " not only Jews and infidels,
but also Christians ; while, by the old law, Jew must nevey
"bite" Jew.

We would like to ask the sentimentalists who accept ^
the moral teachings of Jesus, deny all the distinctive doc-
trines of Christianity, calumniate the Hebrew religion until
they suppose they have driven it out of the memory of
men, then assume distinctive Hebrew or Greek doctrines as
their own,* and finally call themselves liberal "Christians,"
what they have in their religion that was not also in the reli-
gion of the prophet Isaiah, or else in that of Socrates and
Plato, centuries before the " Word became flesh." We shall

* Mr. Jacob Norton, a man of very accurate erudition in matters of He>
brew and Masonic literature, has called the writer's attention to the fact, that
the equivalent of the English expression, " O bur Father I " occurs over and over
again in the Hebrew text of the famous ^' eighteen prayers '' that are regularly
repeated three times every day by all pious Jews. Furthermore : the learned
rabbi. Dr. A. Guinsburg, affirms that these same prayers were regularly recited
in the synagogues, and probably in the temple of Jerusalem, long before the
time of Christ. The venerable rabbi says he never heard either the antiquity
or the authenticity of these prayers called in question, and asserts that it may
easily be proved, if necessary, from genuine tradition, and from the internal
evidences, that they are as old as he says they are.

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probably be obliged to wait some time for an answer. If a
man reject the theory of reminiscence, the doctrine of ideas,
and the other characteristic teachings of Plato, why should
he call himself a Platonist ? If a man reject the peculiar
features of Christianity which make it to be a special re-
ligion, apart from other religions, why should he call himself
a Christian ? There is no question here of personal moral
character, or of the relative truthfulness of various creeds.
If a man live by and profess a religion other than Christi-
anity, he is no Christian, even if his religion prove to be
better than Christianity. Nothing is ever gained, and often
much is lost, in the long-run, by sentimental lying. The
distinctive feature of Christianity is the fact — if it be a
fact — that " the man Jesus is the Son of the living God
WITH POWER : two natures in one 'personP

As soon as the Pauline interpretation of Christianity had
passed to the Aryan Gentiles, it gave occasion, in many
places, for destructive heresies ; and the most fatal of them
all was the one which affirm'ed that Jesus was no real man,
but a spiritual phantom only, a divine apparition, capable
indeed of communicating God's will to man, but naturally
incapable of dying on the cross. What is Christianity
without the cross !

St. John, whose main work was subsequent to that of
Paul, passed the whole latter part of his life in combating
the heresy which denies that the " Son of God " is a real
MAN. This heresy, which is the formal negation of Socin-
ianism, is, obviously, the effectual equivalent of Socinianism,
but in another sphere of ideas. St. John says, —
•

" Many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that
Jesas Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver, and an Antichrist
(2 John 7). Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come
in Hie flesh is not of God. And this is that spirit of Antichrist, whereof
ye have heard that it should come ; and even now already is it in the
world." — 1 John iv. 3.

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It is the denial of Christ's humanity, not the denial of
his divinity, that is, in John's estimation, "Antichrist."
To-day, it would seem that it is the denial of his divinity
which is " a deceiver and an Antichrist."

We* will now do our best to explain St. John's doctrine,
first, in modem metaphysical language, without illustra-
tions and comparisons ; and then, afterwards, symbolically,
in the express words which, according to John's Gospel,
were spoken by the Master himself

The act of consciousness is the typical act of life ; for
the life of the consciousness, or conscious life^ is the high-
est form of life known to man. The act of consciousness
implies a subject and an object. Without the subject, there
is no man, no soul, no life. Without the object, there is
nothing upon which the soul may live. Life is the inter-
penetration and synthesis of activities proceeding from the
external world on the one side, and of activities exerted by
the soul itself on the other. It is the Ego that lives ; but the
life of the Ego is dependent upon, and on one side deter-
mined by, that in conjunction with which it lives. If the
soul live in conjunction with the natural world, it will lead
a natural and worldly life ; the charac1?er of the life being
determined, on one side, by the object. If the soul live^ in
conjunction with the spiritual world, it will have its life, on
one side, determined by the object, and the life will be spirit-
ual. Now, men live in communion with other men. If,
therefore, a man living a mere worldly life meet with a man
who is living a spiritual life, the life of the second man may
become the objective element of the life of the first man ;
and thus the first man may, through the life of Jblie second
man, begin to lead a spiritual life. The second man may
convert the first one. Life is the synthesis of the subject
and the object, of the soul and that which is not the soul,
of that which is within and that which is without, of lib-
erty and necessity.

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Plato defines life to be self-originated motion of the soul,
and therefore defines it inadequately, — not altogether wrong-
ly, but inadequately. He says in the Phsedrus, " No one
will fear to affirm that the power of self-motion forms the
essence and the attribute of the soul ; for that which re-
ceives motion from an exterior cause is not alive, while that
which gives motion, to itself is alive." Plato recognizes
the principle of spontaneity, and ignores the principle of
determination : he recognizes the principle of liberty, and
ignores the principle of necessity.

Life is complex and synthetic. The interpenetration
and synthesis of the activity of the soul with the activity
of that which is not the soul, both activities meeting in the
body, constitute the fact of life. Without the body, nature
is without conjunction with the soul, and the soul without
conjunction with nature ; for the body is that special por-
tion of external nature, in possible conjunction with all
other portions of external nature, that is the counterpart
of the soul in the Kabbalistic Balance.

The synthetic conjunction, in the body, of the activities
of nature and of the soul, is life.

The facts of our intellectual life, if known to us at all,
are made known to us in consciousness ; and those of our
animal life are made known to us by direct observation.
But the facts of our vegetative life are made known to us
neither in consciousness nor by direct observation. A man
eats consciously, but digests unconsciously. It is a matter
of experience, that the vegetative life of the body is sustained
by food. According to the theory spontaneously adopted
by the great majority of mankind, food is the object, which,
taken into the body, is assimilated to the body by the un-
conscious action of the soul, and made to be a part of the
body. Without food, a man will die ; and no food will sus-
tain and nourish a body from which the soul is absent.
Dead men neither eat nor digest. A few scientific men, it

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is true, — and, if we understand him rightly, Mr. Spencer
is one of their number, — deny that any spontaneous subject,
any soul, really exists ; but we are speaking of the common
opinion. All reflecting persons may, perhaps, agree that
the vegetative life of the body consists mainly and essen-
tially in the assimilation of particles from the surrounding
elements, and in the rendering back to the surrounding
elements of particles that have formed a portion of the
body.

It is lawful for a man, taking the popular opinion as it
stands, to speak symbolically, and to say, " Truth is the
food of the soul." It is also lawful for him to run the
analogy out into its various ramifications, and to offer the
circumstances of the vegetative life of man as illustrations
of metaphysical truth. This is what Jesus — who, unlike
some of the scientific men, teaches the i;eal existence of the
soul — actually does.

Jesus represents himself, in St. John's Gospel, as living
a life apart from that of other men, and one superior to that
of other men. He says that Grod, the Father, is the direct
object of his life, and that his life is, therefore, divine-
human : divine on the side of the object, and human on the
side of. the subject. He says, —

" Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of Grod :
he hath seen the Father. — John vi. 46. I know him; for I am from
him, and he hath sent me." — Ch. vii. 29.

If Jesus saw the Father, and knew him, and if no other
man, before Jesus came, had ever seen the Father, or ever
known him directly, it follows that the life of Jesus differed
in kind from that of the persons to whom he addressed the
words here quoted. He was God-man and man-God^ not,
as St. Paul would seem to intimate, by a transfusion of per-
sons, but, on the contrary, by a communion of life. John
the Baptist says, —

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"No man hath seen God at any time : theonly-begptten Son, which
is in the hosom of the Father, he hath declared him.V ^-^ John i. 18.

Jesus lived, according to the texts, on one side in the
Father ; but he liyed also in communion with men. Men,
therefore, by making the life of Jesus the objective element
of their own lives, could themselves live, through him, in
the Father. He says, —

" As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father ; so he
that BATETH MB, fevcn he shall live by me. — John vi. 57. He that hath
seen me hath seen the Father ; and how sayest thou, then, Show us iSclq
Father ? Believest thou not that / am in the Father ^ and the Father in
»«c?" — Ch. xiv. 9, 10.

Here the force of the symbol becofmes manifest. It be-
comes still more manifest in the following passages : —

** The bread of God is he which cometh down from' heaven, and giveth
life unto the world. — John vi. 33. I am the bread of life: he that
cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall
never thirst. -^ Ch.^vi. 35. I am that bread of life* — ■ Gh. vi. 48. I am the
livirCg bread which came down from heaven: if any maa e<i^ vfthis breads
he shall Uve forever." — Ch. vi. 51 .

It \s useless to multiply passages. The key-word to
John's Gospel is this very word Life. It is the doctrine
of John's Gospel, that man is naturally mortal ; that Jesus
was naturally immortal because he " lived by the Father ; "
and that men obtaia immortality by comings through Christ,
to a participation in the life of the Father. Jesus says, —

" Ye will not come unto me that ye m%ht have life. — John v. 4(>i
He that believeth on the Son hath. everlasting life; and; he that believethi
not the Son shoM not see /^.— -Ch. iii. 36. Except ye eot the flesh of
the Son of manV and drink his blood, ye have no life'm you. — Ch. vi. 53..
Whoso eaieth my fleshy and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will
raise him up at the last day. — Ver. 54. I am the resurrection and the
life : he that belioveth in. me, though he were dead, yet shall ho //ye; and.
whosoever Uveth and believeth in me shall never die. — ^Ch^.xi. 25^ ,26.. Bs^
7 '

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cause I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in
my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." — Ch. xiv. 19, 20.

The union of the Son with the Father consisted neither
in an assumption on the part of the Son of the Father's
person, nor yet in an incarnation of the Father's person in
the Son : it consisted in a communion o/life.

[" Pater omnipotens, seterne Deus : Qui cum unigenito Filio
tuo et Spiritu Sancto, unus es Deus, unus es Dominus : nan
in unius singularitate Personm, sed in univs Trinitate siih-
stanticeP What is substance ? The word denotes an ab-
straction existing to the mind. Substance is reality of
existence. As soon as the meaning of the word substance
is rightly apprehended, the theory of the Divine Presence
in the sacraments changes its aspect.]

Jesus was " one "' with the Father in the same way that
the disciples were " one " with each other, and " one " with
him. He says, —

" I pray that they all may be one ; as thou, Father, art in me, and I
in thee, that they also may be one in us : that the world may believe
that thou hast sent me. And the glorif which thou gavest me I have given
them ; that they may be one, even as we are one : 1 in them, and thou in
me, that they may be made perfect in one. — John xvii. 21-23. Holy
Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me,
that they may be one, as we are, — Ver. 11. I and my,Father are one.
— Ch. X. 30. My Father is greater than I." — Ch. xiv. 28.

From the standpoint of John's Gospel, it is logically in-
evitable that death must mean death, and not an inferior
life ; and that life must mean life, and neither prosperity,
nor any thing other than simply life. Moreover, damnation
must mean simply absolute death, and not an eternal life
of misery. When the soul that sinneth dies it ceases to
live. It is written, —

" He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath
everlasting life, and shall not come into damnation, but is passed from

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death unto life. — John v. 24. For God sent not his Son into the world
to damn the world, bat that the world through him might be saved.
He that believeth on him is not damned ; but he that believeth not is
damned already, because he hath not believed in the nanie of the only-
begotten Son of Grod. And this is the damnation, that light is come into
the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds
were evil." — Ch. iii. 17-19.

If we look at the visible Church of Christ as it now
stands on the rock, and endeavor to account for its exist-
ence by following up, in the fatality of their relations, the
chain of antecedents and consequents which connect it his-
torically with its beginning, we come to Jesus as the first
link of the chain ; for beyond him no antecedent belonging
to the series can be pointed out. The visible Church, the
cherubic form of the spiritual Israel, the magical River of
Life, the terrestrial Eden, the Miracle of the Ages, origi--
nated eighteen hundred years ago in the spontaneity of
Jesus. The personality of Jesus, ever-present in its opera-
tive energies, appears to us to-day, in and through the
visible Church, just as it did to the early disciples, extra-
human and inexplicable.

What do we care to-day, any of us, for the learned re-
marks that judicious critics may have to put forward re-
specting the original intent and application of the Messianic
prophecies ? Is it not competent to the spirit of Adam
Kadmon, the spirit of Humanity, the spirit that rules and
interprets the ages, to interpolate, under the words of the
prophets, meanings of which the prophets never dreamed ?
When we hear poetry of like nature and tenor with that
which is quoted below chanted in church, we believe every
word of it (so long as the organ is playing), just as the ser-
vant-maids and the coal-heavers who sit near us believe it.
When we go out of the church, and hear the noise of the
street, and believe no longer, are we any greater, nobler,
better, or even wiser, than we were while we were inside

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the building, before the altar, and believing? It is written
in the Old Testament, —

" But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah,
Though thou be little among the thousands of Jndah,
Yet out of thee shall he come forth unto mTe
Who shall be ruler in Israel ;
Whose goings-forth have been from of old, —
From the days of eternity/' — Mic. v. 2.

" Jehovah himself shall give you a sign :
Behold, a virgin shall conceive,* and bear a son,
And shall call his name Immannel/' — Isa, yii. 14.

" Unto us a child is bom ;
Unto us a son is given :

And the government shall be upon his shoulder:
And his name shall be called
Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty Grod,
The Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." — Isa: ix. 6.

fhe Sephiroth. — The First Triad.

The ten sephiroth are the ten successive steps, or stages,
by which, if we may believe the Kabbala, the name of the
' Supreme becomes known to men. * Each sephirah is a dis-
tinct special name and aspect of the Most High.

The Ancient of days (called also the Elder of elders) is
thq first Sephirah. The Ancient of days is known to the
Mekubbalim by many titles. He is called Kether (the
Crown) ; also the Orient (or the Beginning), the Cause of
causes, -^hieh. Black Color, Bottomless Depth, the Fear
of the Lord, Light Unapproachable, the Eternal, the White
Head, and the like.

The existence of the Ancient of days (as himself) in-
volves, by necessary contradistinction, the existence of that

* Heb. : *^ Behold, the young W6man hath conceived, and shall bear,'' &c.

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which is hot himself. But, exclusively of the Ancient of
days, nothing is. That nothing is uncreated ; for it stands
in the Kahbalistic Balance as the negation — the necessary
correlative counterpart, by way of contradiction — of the
Ancient of days. That nothing is the aboriginal Abyss.
It is written, " The earth was without form, and void ; and
darkness was on the face of the Abyss." * From that Abyss
all created things we.re drawn forth. The world is created
out of nothing. In that aboriginal nothing, the eye of the
Ancient of days saw, from the beginning, all things as existing
potentially and without forms j even to creatures of whom it
was already written, that they should one day array them-
selves against their Maker, defy his power, and be forgiven.
For the Elder of elders "calleth things that are not as yet
as though they actually were." The original nothing is the
immanent substance of the existing worlds, the uncreated
and persistent root of every thing that is not God. While
the creatures exist potentially only, they are real, but not
actual : it is not until they are brought forth into visibility,
through being clothed with form, that they become both
real and actual. Whether existing visibly or invisibly, the
substance and ground of the creatures, as creatures, is 7ioth-
ing.

It is obvious, from the nature of the case, that the Abyss,
the potential world, the original nothing, the possibility of
things, must be uncreated. Why ? For this reason. If
God created the original possibility, that creation of the
original possibility was itf^eii possible with God ; and a new
possibilit}^ rises up behind the possibility first considered.
This new possibility is a prior condition requisite to the very
being of the possibility first considered. If we treat this
new possibility (which we have found, on the hypothesis
that the original possibility was created, to be prior to that

* Dliin, Thehom, the Abyss.

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original possibility itself), — if we treat this new possibility
as we did the other, still another possibility will rise up
behind this new possibility ; and so on to infinity. If, there-
fore, the original possibility was created, that possibility
was by no means original ; for it must have been preceded
by another possibility, and this last by another ^ and so on.

The possibility of a particular act of creation is a condi-
tion logically prior to the creative act, itself ; for, if the par-
ticular creation be impossible, it will never take place. The
possibility is not made to be by the very fact of creation;
for the particular creation would have remained possible
although the actual creation had never taken place. The
greater portion of the Abyss, the greater part of the possi-
bilities of things, have, indeed, not yet been realized, and in
all probability they never will be. The possibility of an act
of creation is, therefore, a condition logically prior to and
independent of that act itself ; and this reasoning applies
as well to the first act of x^reation as to any other. The
possibility of creation, the universe in potentia, the Abyss,
therefore, existed before the very first act of creation, and is
itself uncreated.

This reasoning, though subtle, and apparently verbal, is
supposed to be in reality accurate, logical, and conclusive.

The original nothing was, from the beginning, outside of
the Elder of elders, -'— opposite to him, — other than him-
self. In it the Elder of elders was reflected as in a mir-
ror. The image of the Elder of elders, eternally reflected
in that nothing which was from the beginning, is the Micro-
prosopus. The Elder of elders is the Macroprosopus. It
is written in the Zohar, —

'' The parts of the Microprosopus (l"^Dfi^ 1*^3? T, Zoir-Aphin, the shorter
face or aspect) are distributed and clothed according to the forms of the
Most Holy Ancient of days, hiddeii in all things. — Id. Rak, § 508. . . .
These forms of the Microprosopus are, therefore, disposed according to
the forms of the Macroprosopus (]'*Si< ""^^fi^, Arik-Apkin, the greater

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r aspect) ; and the forms of the Microprosopus are extended here
tere in human figure and similitude, in order that the s[^rit hidden
parts of it may be drawn forth. — Id. Rah., § 510.
he Elder of ciders is called Arik-Aphin (long-face, or Macroproso-
but he who is outside is called Zoir-Aphin (short-face, or Micropro- *
; in contradistinction from tlie Silent Holy Elder, the Holiest of
>ly (who has no face). And, when the Microprosopus looks back
the Macroprosopus, all things in it are reduced to order, and its
lengthened while it is looking ; but its face is not always long like

f the Elder of elders. — /(i. 2?a6., § 54,55. . . . There is no left-
side to the occult Elder ; for, with him, every thing is on the right."
Rab., § 81

the above figure, a representation is given of the
alistic "answering of face to face."* The superior
denotes that of the non-cognizable Head. "That

bis picture may be found in Eliphaz Levi's << Dogma and Ritual of
indent Magic," and also in the published '* Rituals " of some of the very
[asonic degrees.

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which is below answers to that which is above." Above
is the Macroprosopus ; below, the Microprosopus. The
picture denotes a special phase and moment of the Kabba-
^ listic Balance.

It is written in the Zohar, "The Macroprosopus and
the Microprosopus are so designated to contradistinguish
(n'^bapb, le-kbl-ih) them from the Silent Holy Elder, the
Holiest of the holy (who has no name)." [Z^-kbl : ac-
cording to the opposition ; as contradistinguished fromS\
The word Kahhala has, therefore, an exoteric and an eso-
teric signification : used exoterically, it signifies that which
is received by tradition ; used esoterically, it signifies the
weighing in the Balance, the doctrine of oppositions, of con-
tradistinctions, of contradictions-pregnant.

The theory of the Kabbala is the ancient theory of ema-
nations, but transformed and idealized. It recognizes no
material flux. The Kabbala says expressly, " Thought is
the source of all thai, is" The evolution of the universe is
a process of thought, not a flow of matter. It is, in one
aspect, a poem ; in another, it is a logical argument. In
every aspect, the universe is a work of art. Beality is ade-
quate to thought ; and volition, which is a form of thought,
is equivalent to existence. It is written in the Zohar, —

"The Holy Elder (the Macroprosopus) is non-manifest. The Micro-
prosopus is eithenpanifest or non-manifest : as manifest, it may be writ-
ten with letters. — Zeniuthxiy ch. iv. § I, 2. There are twenty-two occult
letters, and twenty-two manifest letters ; and the occult and manifest are
weighed over against each other in the Balance. — 25sn., iv. § 10, 11 . . . .
(That which is above is male ; that below, female :) as it is written, * The
sons of Grod saw the daughters of men, that they were fair.* — § 1 6.

" R. Simon said, All things that I have spoken of the Holiest Elder,
and all that I have spoken of the Microprosopus, all arc the same, all are
one; and there is no place here for separation. Blessed be He, and blessed
be his Name, for ever and ever. — Id. Sat,, § 240. He and his Name are
one. — Id, SuL, § 354. This is the sum of the doctrine. The Elder of
elders is in the Microprosopus. All was ; all ts ; all shall be. Mutation
is not, was not, and shall Aever be." — Id, Bah,, § 920.

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From the Ancient of days, who is the first sephirah,
nine other sephiroth proceed, making ten in all. " There
are ten sephiroth, not nine of them only; ten, and not
eleven." The procession, from the Ancient of days, of the
nine sephiroth, is thus explained and illustrated in the
Zohar : —

" The Most Holy Ancient One (blessed be his name !) separates him-
self, and always more and more. In all things he is separate, yet not
fully separate : for all things cohere in him ; and he is in all things, and
he is all things. He possesses form, and yet he is as though he were form-
less. He assumes form in order that he may sustain all things ; and yet
he is without form, since he is nowhere found. As possessing form, he
produces nine lights, which shine from him out of the form he has ;
and these lights shine from him, and emit flames, and are spread abroad
on all sides like rays scattered from a lofty beacon-fire. If any one ap-
proaches these rays to examine them severally, he finds nothing but the
single beacon-fire. So also it is with the Most Holy Ancient One. Ho
is that lofty beacon-fire which is hidden in all occultations. He himself
is found nowhere, save in those rays which are spread abroad, revealed,
and hidden. And these rays are ioalled the Holy Name ; and, because of
that Name, all* of them are one." — Id. Sut, § 41 to § 47.

"Thought is the source of all that is." Thought is the

first sephirah, the Ancient of days. Thought implies a suh-

r ject which thinks, and also an object thought. The thinker

and the object thought are weighed over against each other

in the Kabbalistic Balance.

God is Intelligent-Cause. He is also self-sufficient ; and,
as such, he creates himself eternally. As creator, he is the
thinker; as created by himself, he is himself the object
thought. He is at once the subject and the object of his
own thought. He is that which eternally creates, that
which is eternally created, and the eternal act of creation ;
that which eternally thinks, that which is eternally thought,
and the eternal act of thinking. His essence involves
*texistence. He is in eternity, and he exists eternally. The
Kabbala says, "Xhe Ancient of days (blessed be his
name!) exists in three heads, which are one head."

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The Supreme, as thinking subject, is called, in the Kab-
bala, Chokmah (Wisdom), and is regarded as male. As
himself the object of his own thought, he is called Binah
(Understanding), and is regarded as female. Binah is the
Supreme as objective to himself. " Chokmah is the Father ;
Binah is the Mother : Chokmah and Binah are weighed in
one Balance as male and female." It is written in the
Zohar, —

" The Father and the Mother inhere in the Elder, and are his con-
formations. — Id. tSiu^.y § 393. The Father and Mother are produced
from the Most Holy Elder, belong to him, and in him cohere. Through
them the Microprosopus is produced from the Most Holy Elder, and is
united with him." — § 897, 398.

The first three sephiroth are the three constituent ele-
ments of the divine self-consciousness. The affirmation of
the Supreme Sis existing in the form of the first triad of the
sephiroth is an affirmation of the personality of God ; for
personality is an aspect of consciousness.

Before the evolution of Chokmah and Binah, the Supreme
was devoid of self-consciousness (the form of -man), and
therefore of volition, which is a product of personal con- •
sciousness : consequently, the first worlds persisted not ; for
the persisting worlds are a product of God's volition. It is
written, "In the beginning, God created (para, bare) the
heavens and the earth ; and the earth was thohu va bohu
(a (Jontingent potentiality of existence, and in a potentiality
of existence, — an occultation that was occulted in still
another) j and darkness was on the face of the Thehom (the
Abyss).'' When the Supreme evolved himself into Trinity
through becoming self-conscious (we speak here of logical,
not chronological, sequence), the worlds passed from double
into simple occultation; and the Thehom became a mere"
potentiality, and no longer a potentiality pcculted in another
potentiality. And herein is mystery.

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A stream of water that should well forth in the Thehom^
the Abyss, would spring from nowhere, and would flow no-
whei'e: it would have no status in space; it would exist
in the form of infinitely-attenuated spray, mist, or dew. If,
however, on the contrary, that same water should well forth
in the world of actuality, upon the earth, it would meet with
obstacles, would wear for itself a channel, and would become
a river, having a certaki individuality of its own. So it is
with the fact of personality. A person is a living-subject ;
but if that subject have no object, be weighed against noth-
ing whatever in the Kabbalistic Balance, it will not be truly
alive, and will be the mere potentiality of a person.

If it be a fountain of light, and not one of water, that
streams forth into the Thehom, the result will be analogous:
the light will illuminate nothing, — for there is nothing in
the Thehom to be illuminated, — and the light itself will
be and remain invisible.

Combining these two figures, we obtain a phrase that
has been famous among the Mekubbalim, — " The Dew of
Lights."

" This is that manna which is provided for the just in the world to
come. On this dew the heavenly saints are fed/*— Id, Rah., § 48, 49.
By this dew the dead are raised up in the world to come." — § 45.

The Dew of Lights is the potentiality of the Divine Sub-
ject, of the Divine Personality. This is that "Crystal-
line Dew" which is mentioned in the Zeniutha. It is
written, —

" The non-cognizable Head is framed and prepared (or is to be con-
ceived) after the similitude of a skull [Riether] filled with crystalline dew
[Chokmah] : the covering membrane [Binah] of this skull is transparent
and closed," ^ZenitUha, i. § 10.

Chokmah is called by many names; as the Word, First-
bom, Will, Jah, Amen, What ? Thought, Eden, and the
like.

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Bmah is, in like maainer, called by many names; as
Sister, Wonderful Light, River flowing out of Paradise,
Daughter, the House of Wisdom, the Face of the Sun, the
Fire consuming itself, and the like.

The Sephiroth, — The Second Triad,

The worlds were brought forth* from potentiality into
actuality through the volition of the Supreme. . But what
moved the Supreme (who is complete in himself, to whose
perfection nothing is lacking), and induced him to create the
worlds ? Spontaneous pity moved him, and loving-kindness
for the creatures he saw in the Abyss (the Thehom), where
they were subsisting potentially only, and without any
actuality at all.

Pity or mercy, non {Chesed), h the fourth sephirah.
Sometimes this sephirah is known also as ni'lia ( OedulaK)^
greatness, magnificence, generosity. The fourth sephirah
is called by many names; as Water, White Fire, White
Clothing, El, Abraham, Silver, Michael, the Lion's Face,
and the like.

But pity, standing alone, is barren, is virtual only. Pity
implies justice as its correlative opposite* Pity and justice,
like wisdom and understanding, are weighed against each
other in the Kabbalistic Balance as male and female. The
actuality of the one implies the actuality of the other.

Justice, "["^T (Din), is the fifth sephirah. Sometimes this
sephirah is known also as nniaa ( GibboraK), rigor, severity.
The fifth sephirah is called by many names ; as Elohim,
Isaac, Red Color, Red Fire, Gold, the Golden Altar, Ga-
briel, Metatron, the North, Judgment, Fear, Sanctification,
Truth, Merit, and the like.

The synthesis of mercy and justice in the Kabbalistic
Balance is Beauty. • Beauty, nnNSn {Tiph:areth), is the
sixth sephirah. This sephirah has many names; as Yel-

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low and Green Colors, Sun, Kising Sun, Shaddai, High
Priest, the World to Come, the Husband of the Church,
Holy King, Terrible, and the like.

Woman is justice : man is mercy. Marriage, the syn-
thetic union of the two, is Tiphareth, — beauty; and mar-
riage is always beautiful when the woman is just to the
man, and the man is magnanimous to the woman. Womdn
is fatality : man is spontaneity, liberty. Fatality and lib-
erty,, the two aspects of human life, naturally contradict
each other, deny each other, and exclude each other ; but
when liberty, as against fatality, takes the form of Magna-
nimity, — the fourth sephirah, — and fatality, as against lib-
erty, takes the form of Justice, — the fifth sephirah, — then
Beauty — the sixth sephirah — immediately comes into
being as the sabbath of rest for the two.

It will be observed that the figure on the 79th page is
in the form of the Blazing Star. The points of the star
are represented by the opposing crowns and by the angles
of the elbows. The Cubical Stone and the Blazing Star
are equivalent symbols : each face of the stone answers to
a point of the star.

The two sephiroth, Mercy and Rigor, are denoted in the
picture by the hair parted in the middle, and " hanging in
equilibrium." Sometimes Beauty is denoted by the fore-
head, and sometimes by the beard. All the sephiroth are
denoted in the Balance by parts and adjuncts of the Head
only ; for it is written, —

** The scripture says, ' Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the
years.' This is said of the Ancient of days. What is this * work ' 1
Microprosopus. — Id. Rab., § 738. But nothing is revealed of the Holy
Elder save the head only ; for he is the Head of all heads." — Id. Sut.,
,§57.

We will quote some of the passages of the Zohar in
which the sephiroth are spoken of as denoted by the lips,
beard^ forehead, and the like of the Macroprosopus : —

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" The beard hides not the lips, which are red and rosj. As it is writ-
ten, * His lips are like roses.' ^ Can^ v. 13. The lips mutter Severity ;
they matter Wisdom. To them pertain good and evil, life and death. —
Id. Sut., § 678-680. In the book of dissertations of B. Jebha, the
elder, it is affirmed and stated that the beard of the Macroprosopns be-
gins at the supreme Benignity. And so it is written (1 Chron. xxix. 11 ),
' Thine, O Lord I is the greatness ( Gedulah) and the pow«r (Gibborah)
and the beauty ( Tif^areth)/ &c. This affirmation is correct. These
things are so, and thus begin. — Id. Sut., § 663, 664. The forehead of
the Macroprosopns is called Well-pleasedness. — Id. Sut., § 87. When
it is unveiled, loving-kindness is found in all worlds, and all prayers are
accepted, and the face of the Microprosopus is illuminated from above,
and all things appear in mercy. — § 90,91. And all judgments are
turned aside, and mercy is found in their stead. — § 93. Also the Ge-
henna fire withdraws into its place, and sinners have a respite. — § 94.

" Certainly, so far as the Elder of elders, the White Head, discloses his
forehead, great mercies are found everywhere ; but, when that forehead is
covered, the Microprosopus is clothed with unmitigated judgments, and,
if it be lawful so to speak, mercy becomes judgment. — Id. Rob., § 678-
680. The forehead of the Microprosopus is the forehead of the visitation
of sinners. When that forehead is uncovered, there is a rising-up of the
judgments of the Lord against such as blush not for their evil works.
This forehead is rosy-red ; but it becomes as white as snow whenever the
forehead of the Elder of elders is uncovered before it in the hour called
the time of loving-kindness for all. — Id. Sat., § 496-499. When the
forehead of the Macroprosopns is unveiled, it quenches the fire of the
forehead of the Microprosopus while this second forehead is inspecting
the sins of the world that blushes not for its works. As it is written
{Jer. iii. 3), ' Thou hast an harlot's forehead, and refusest to be ashamed.' "
— Id. Rab.,% 692, 593,

Pity, mercy, magnanimity, generosity, — the fourth sephi-
rah, — is active, spontaneous, and free. Commiseration, a
human passion which (because it is a passion) counts not
among the sephiroth, is responsive and female, or subsists
in instinctive re-action and communication, and therefore
belongs to the order of fatality. Pity is distinctively hu*
man. Dumb animals sometimes commiserate each other;
but no dumb animal ever yet experienced the sentiment of
spontaneous pity.

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Pity belongs to the soul : commiseration and compassion
belong to the body. Pity is indefectible ; but commisera-
tion and compassion turn easily into jealousy, envy, and
hatred. The same principle of instinctive sympathy which
impels us to aid those who, through suflFering, are more un-
happy than we are, causes us to conspire a^inst all superi-
ority that imparts to others a happiness we do not possess.
We never envy the trees for their tallness ; but we envy the
natural advantages of other men : this is because we live in
sympathetic relations of action and re-action with men;*
while, between ourselves and the trees, no real social bond
exists.

The soul and the body, the spiritual man and the animal
man, liberty and fatality, are weighed over against each
other in the Kabbalistic Balance. The apostle Paul says, —

** The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh ;
and these are contrary the one to the other. — Gal. v. 17. They that
are according to the flesh do mind the things of the flesh ; and they that
are according to the spirit, the things of the spirit : for to be carnally-
minded is death ; but to be spiritually-minded is life and peace. — Rom.
viii. 5, 6. I delight in the law of Grod after the inward man ; but I see
another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and
bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." *
— Rom, viL 22, 23.

The first experience, by an individual man, of the senti-
ment of magnanimous mercy, is usually coincident with his
first act of real and effectual self-consciousness ; and it is
through an act of consciousness that the war between the
law of the mind and the law of the members is brought to
an end, and replaced by peace. Pitiless men are men who
have not yet outgrown the thraldom of mere animal exist-

* St. Paul is yery quicl; to discern a contradiction in the Balance; but he
frequently fails to perceive the synthesis. It is for this reason that his writ-
in|^, though powerful to produce conviction of sin, are less potent than those
of St. John in effecting conversions.

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ence ; men who have, in fact, a certain consciousness, such
as the animals have, but, as- yet, know nothing of that spir-'
itual consciousness of which we have spoken. The first
experience of the sentiment of spontaneous pity marks a
critical epoch in the history of individual men. It is the
first round in the' ladder of spiritual religion. St. Paul places
charity — not alms-giving, but pity, mercy, generosity —
above faith and hope. He says, *^ Though I bestow all
my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to
be burned, and have not charity^ it profiteth me nothing."
And again : " And now abide th faith, hope, charity, these
three ; but the greatest of these is charity." The day and
the hour in which an individual man first knows the senti-
ment of true charity is always remembered. No man was
ever born again (and no people was ever born again) with-
out being consciously aware of the spiritual transformation,
and without retaining a distinct recollection of the event.

The Sephiroth, — The Third Triad.

The first triad — thought, wisdom, understanding — is
intellectual. The second triad — mercy, justice, beauty-^
is moral and spiritual. The third triad is physical, or dy-
namic.

The seventh sephirah, the first term of the physical or
dynamic triad, is called not only n^3 (Netsech, Victory), .
but also Jehovah Sabaoth, Eternity, Moses, Jachin (or the
name of the right-hand column in the porch of Solomon's
temple), &c. Let us stop with Jachin. The word Jachin
signifies " Force that establishes." Jachin is energy.

The eighth sephirah, the second term in the physical
triad, or Tin (Hod, Glory), is also called Elohim Sabaoth,
Aaron, .King's Daughter, the Old Serpent, Boaz (or the
name of the left-hand colunm in the porch of Solomon's

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temple), &c. Let us stop this time with Boaz. The word
Boaz signifies " Strength of endurance." Boaz is strength.
Netsech and Hod, Victory and Glory, Jachin and Boaz,
are energy and strength. The Kabbala says, —

"By Netsech and Hod (Victory and Glory) fores is multiplied. All
powers bom in the univ^se flow from these two. They are called the
armies of the Eternal."

We may illustrate the weighing of these two correlatives
over against each other in the Kabbalistic Balance by in>
stancing the natural working of any material machine;
of a locomotive steam-engine, for example. If the steam be
not utilized in the locomotive, but is allowed to disseminate
itself in space, it will spread itself on every side, exert itself
nowhere, and will fail to reveal itself as force. On the other
hand, so long as the machine is unactuated by the steam,
the materials of which it is composed will remain inert,
and no motion will be originated. The true working-
power of a locomotive steam-engine is a synthetic result,
a joint product of the energy (Jachin) furnished by the
steam, and of the resisting strength (JBoaz) of the materials
entering into the composition of the machine.

The ninth sephirah, mo^ {Jesod, Foundation), is the syn-
thesis of Jachin and Boaz, of energy and strength : it is
" working-power.*

The third triad, the physical or dynamic triad, is, there-
fore, energy, strength, working-power. The Kabbala says
{Idra Rabha, § 600), " The forehead of the Microprosopus
is Netsech (Victory)." We suspect that Netsech and Hod,
Jachin and Boaz, energy and strength, are denoted by the

♦ The useful effect, or " working-power," of a machine, is the fraction
that expresses the amount of work performed as compared with the power
applied. The power applied is expressed by unity. Thus, if the machine per-
form two-thirds of the work applied to it, one-third of the power applied is lost
by friction, and two-thirds is the usefUl effect of the machine. — Baker^a M^
dumics,

8»

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two eyes of the Microprosopus ; but we have never yet been
able to £nd the express passage of the Zohar that would
confirm our suspicion. We do not fully understand the
following extracts, but give them, nevertheless, in the hope
that the reader may be able to make out their meaning : —

" In the Microprosopus there is a right ejQ and a left eye ; and these
two are of diverse colors. But the eye of the Macroprosopus b not at
all on the left ; for both eyes are one eye, and both are on the right. For
this reason, they are not two eyes, but one eye. And this eye, which is
the eye of observations, is always open ; but the eyes of the Microprosopus
are not always open, and they have eyelids to protect them. — Id, Rab.,
§ 149-152.

" The children of Israel said (Exod. xvii. 7), 'Is the Lord among ns,
or not ? ' This question makes a distinction between the Microprosopus,
who is called Tetragrammaton (and is with men), and the Macroproso-
pus, who is called 5^fiJ {Non Ens).-— Id. Rab., § 83.

" It is written {Ps. xliv. 24), * Awake ! why sleepest thou, O Lord 1 *
And again (2 Kings xix. 16), 'Open, Lord, thine ejes, and see.' The
eye of the Macroprosopus is always opened for good; but sometimes
the eyes of the Micropronopus are opened for evil. Woe to him upon
whom those eyes so open that they are seen mixed with red, and with
the redness glaring as an adversary upon him wlio beholds it I Who
shall escape from those eyes ? — Id. Bab., § 153-155.

" The eyes of the White Head are not like other eyes ; for they have
neither eyelids nor eyebrows over them. — Id. Rob., § 112. Now, what-
soever worketh through mercy needs neither a covering upon the eye, nor
yet eyebrows ; much less does the White Head require eyelids and eye-
brows. — Id. Bab., § 115. For the White Head sleeps never, and re-
quires no protection for its eyes, — Id. Bab., § 113. Nothing is over the
eye of the White Head to protect it ; for itself protects all things, and
watches all things ; and, by reason of the inspection of this eye, all things
consist. If this eye should be shut for a single instant, nothing what-
ever would subsist. — Id. Bab., § 135, 136. If the superior eye should
not look on the inferior eye, the world would cease to be. — Id. Bab.,
§142.

" The black color in the eyes of the Microprosopus is like that of the
Stone which comes forth out of the Abyss into the great sea once in a
thousand years. When that Stone appears, there are storms and tem-
pests in the sea, and the voice of the waves is lifted up ; and that voice is
heard by the great fish, who is Leviathan. — Id. Bab., § 632, 633.

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" When sins are multiplied in the world, and the Sanctuary is pro-
faned; when the male dwells far from the female; when the robust
Serpent begins to raise himself up, — woe to the world that nourishes
itself from the then existing justice ! In those days, executioners and
tormentors are given to the world, and many just men are taken out
of it. Why ? Because the male is separated from the female, — justice
from judgment.** — /*/. Sut., § 367-369.

The ninth sephirah is called by many names; as the
Covenant of the Lord, the Covenant of Circumcision, the
Member of the Covenant, El Chai, the Redeeming Angel,
the Fountain of the Water of Life, the Tree of Knowledge
of Good and Evil, Mount Zion, Leviathan, the Lord upon
the Ark of the Covenant, the Column of Peace, Time, the
Gate of Tears, and the like.

TTie Sephiroth, — Matrona,

The tenth sephirah, niDb^ {Mdcuth, Royalty), is known
by many names, among which the following may be men-
tioned : the Wife of the Microprosopus, the Earth, the Moon,
the End, the Spouse, the Church of Israel, the Virgin of
Israel, the House of David, the Temple of the King, the
Ark of the Covenant, the Coping Stone, Shechinah, the Book
of Life, and the like. The upper part of this wife of the
Microprosopus is called Leah, the wife of Israel : the lower
part is called Rachel, the wife of Jacob. Melcuth, or Ma-
trona, is ACTUALITY. Things that exist in the first nine
sephiroth only, are potential, invisible, and have no subsist-
ence outside of the world of pure emanation. Things that
exist in all of the ten sephiroth are actual and visible.
Matrona lends visibility and actuality to that which, with-
out her aid, would exist virtually only.

We will explain the nature of this tenth sephirah, not in
our own words, which might prove inadequate, but in the
words of the Idra Suta itself: —

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" The Microprosopus is formed in the analogy of man ; and in him the
disposition of the sexes, as male and female, begins at the back. — § 945.
For, in one and the same body, this man (the Microprosopns) is both
male and female. — § 949. Thus the Microprosopus is a man and a
woman, who adhere to each other by their backs ; having four arms and
four legs (two of each in front belonging to the man, and two behind
belonging to the woman). — §997. The female head, which is at the
back of the male head, is completely hidden under the hair of the Micro-
prosopus (this hair serving as a thick veil)." — § 948.

In Plato's dialogue of the " Banquet," Socrates describes
the first men as being endowed, each of them, with four
arms, four legs, two faces, &c. It was a common belief, in
the times of remote antiquity, that the first men were cre-
ated male-female.

The masculine term of a contradiction-pregnant is impul-
sive and initiative: the feminine term is responsive and
resistant. If these two are conjoined, back to back, so that
they face away from each other, the lines of their actions
will be in opposite directions, and the two terms will recip-
rocally annul each other. This is the equilibrium of nega-
tion and living-death. Now, since the happiness of every
creature is in the exercise of its natural activities, the com-
plete equilibrium of negation between two living creatures
is nothing other than the perfected unhappiness, the entire
misery, of both of them. In such equilibrium, each annuls
every faculty, capacity, and activity of the other. When,
however, the two terms are brought, on the contrary, face to
face, each faculty or capacity of the one gives the means
and the occasion for the development of a correlative faculty
or capacity in the other; and then the equilibrium of
synthesis takes the place of the equilibrium of reciprocal
negation, and happiness takes the place of misery. Ac-
tions determined by imperfect equilibrium of negation are
usually half-actions, — each one contradicting its antece-
dent and its consequent, like the strokes of a pendulum :

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93 .

every one of them involves disorder and suffering. An im-
perfect equilibrium of synthesis is, on the contrary, a condi-
tion of progressive improvement or deterioration. Every
Hian carries on his back the burthen of the fatality which
inheres in his own nature. When he brings that burthen to
the front, by obtaining a distinct understanding of it, and by
deliberately accepting himself for better or worse, the fatal-
ity of his nature becomes to him a basis of actuality, on
which he may build up the structure of his own destiny.
Evil is incompleteness, especially incompleteness of ac-
tion. None but men of integrity are happy. It is only
by integrity of action that men become whole. Holiness is
wholeness, integrity : wilful lack of integrity is sin.

It is the doctrine of the Kabbala, that the Tyoman, as
originally conjoined with the man, back to back, in one com-
plex person, is necessarily evil; because misplaced, if for
no other reason. When the man and the woman are sepa-
rated from each other, the woman ceases to be evil. The
woman becomes positively good as soon as she is brought
into communication, face to face, with the man. The Idra
Suta says, —

" The voice of the woman (as conjoined back to back with the man),
turpitude ; the hair of this woman, turpitude ; the legs of this woman, tur-
pitude ; the hands of this woman, turpitude ; the feet of this woman,
turpitude. — § 965. When the male and female elements were to be
separated, an ecstatic (magnetic) trance fell upon the Microprosopus,
and the female part was severed from his back, and hidden until the time
when she was to be brought to the male. — § 1028. Meanwhile malignant
spirits, authors of disorder, were coming into being : but, before they
were finished, Matrona came in her true form, and sat down before them,
and the creation of them ceased, so that they were not finished ; because
the Matron sat down with the Holy King (the sixth sephirah), and as-
sociated with him face to face." — § 1035, 1036.

We learn from the first chapter of Genesis, that Adam
was made, on the sixth day of the creation, not as a single
person or as a single pair, but as a collective multitude of

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individuals. It is written, " In the image of God created
he him; male and female created he tJiem* And GU)d
blessed them, and said unto them,^^ &c. The Kabbala
says that each Adamic individual was male-female, com-
posed of a man and a woman conjoined back to back, and
therefore incapable of associating with each other. It was
in this fact of the non-a9sociation of the man and the
woman that Adam's original " loneliness " consisted.

At the end of the sixth day, "God saw every thing he had
made ; and, behold, it was veri/ goodJ^ But a change took
place on the sabbath of rest; for, farther on, we read
(ch. ii. 18), "The Lord God said, It is not good that
Adam should be aloney That which is not good is evil
Evil was therefore in the world before Eve ate the apple ;
yea, before Eve existed as a separated person. And it was
as a remedy for already existiag evil that the original Adam
was split lengthwise, along the part where the back now is,
and made to be ©"'fii (Ish, man) and n\Dfi( (Ishah, woman).
The Idra Rabba says, —

" When the Elder of elders wills to separate the male and female ele-
ments, he causes an ecstasy to fall upon the Microprosopus, and severs
the woman from his back. He then completes all her conformations,
and hides her until the day in which she is to be brought to the male.
And this is what is written ( Gen. ii. 21 ), ' And the Lord God caused a
deep sleep to fall upon Adam/ " &c. — § 1026-1030.

E.. Simon says, —

" In no day of my life have I omitted the three feasts ; and, on ac-
count of them, I had no occasion to fast on the sabbath days. I had no
occasion to fast on other days, much less on the sabbath ; for whoso
correctly conducts himself respecting those three feasts is an adept in
perfect truth. The 4rst feast is Matrona (the tenth sephirah) ; the sec-
ond is the Holy King (the sixth sephirah) ; and the third is the Most
Holy Elder, hidden in all occultations (the first sephirah)." *

* The ending of the Lord's Prayer, as it is printed in the Protestant Bibles,
—"For thine Is the kingdom (Royalty. Matrona). and thepoircr (Netsech, the
seventh sephirah), and the ^tory (Hod, the eighth sephirah)," — is distinctly
kabbalistic, and possibly an interpolation of some early commentator : it it
neither printed in the Catholic Bibles, nor sung in the Catholic chorches.

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Hatrona, as separated j&oni the Microprosopus, is repre-
sented in the emblematic picture by the small conical figure
at the bottom, beneath the band.

It now devolves upon us to explain #he signification of
the serpent which forms the framing of the picture. This
serpent represents the force of fatality, and holds his tail
in his mouth to denote eternity and the eternally-recurring
circulation of antecedents and consequents. It is written
in the Zeniutha: —

'* The vehemency (the realm of Matrona) was real, bat within the
limitations of the formlessness and emptiness and darkness that were
on the face of the Abyss, and thus only. Excavation of excavations
under the form of a serpent, far extended here and there. His tail is in
his head. (With him, the ending is at the beginning ; for he holds his
tail in his mouth, and fbrms a circle. ) He carries his head around the
back (of Matrona). He is full of wrath, and observes. He is hidden
and revealed in one of the thousand shorter days (in one of the numera-
tions of the Microprosopos). He was changed in his slaying, and came
forth other, and castrate. As ittfs written {Ps. Ixxiv. 13), *Thou
breakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.' Two heads there were ;
but one only remains." — Ch. i. § 23-31.

•

The Ten Sephiroth.

The tabular list of the ten sephiroth, their names being
given in plain English, is as follows : —

(1) Thought.
(3) Understanding. (2) Wisdom.

(5) Justice. (4) Mercy.

(6) Beauty.

. (8) Strength. (7) Energy.

(9) Working-Power.

(10) Actuality.

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Energy, Mercy, and Wisdom are the right-hand column,
the pillar ofJachin, and the three aspects of the mascu-
line principle.

Strength, Justi^^, and Understanding are th^ left-hand
column, the pillar of Boaz, and the three aspects of the
feminine principle.

The synthetic sephiroth, four in numher, Actuality, Work-
ing-Power, Beauty, and Thought, form the famous middle
column, which is known as a Tree of Life.

In the Greater Assembly, the companions were so
seated that they became an emblematic figure of the three
columns of the sephiroth. We read in the Idra Rabba, —

" B. Simon said to the companions, How long shall we remain sitting
here as a sole column ? (or remain unorganized.) — § 1. Then the com-
panions that were before R. Simon were numbered ; and there were found
present R. Eliezar, who was R. Simon's son ; R. Abba ; R. Jehudah ;
R. Jose, son of Jacob; R. Isaac; R. Chiskia, son of Raf; R. Chija ; R.
Jose ; and R. Jesa. (Nine in all, and, including R. Simon, ten, — the num-
ber of the sephiroth.) — § 7. So t}% gave their hands to R. Simon, and
raised their fingers on high (they made the signs), and then entered into
the field, and sat down among the trees (in the valley that stretches due E.
and W. under the canopy of heaven). — § 8. R. Simon called R. Eliezar,
his son, and directed him to sit down before him, with R. Abba on the
opposite side. And he said, We are now a type of all things: thus far the
columns are made firm. — § 13. . . . Before the companions went out of
this field, three of them died, — R. Jose, R. Chiskia, and R. Jesa. [Ten
went in, and only seven came out.]**

The companions were seated in the relative positions indi-
cated by the figure in the margin. R. Simon
sat in the first place (that of the Crown), and the
serving-brother in the tenth place (that of Matro-
na, Royalty). The beginning was in the ending :
1 was 10 ; for he who was master of them all was
also the servant of them all. They sat as three
triads of triads, with an appendix (10) ; and the
appendix was the sabbath of rest for them all. R.
Simon sat facing the companions, and the compan- 10«

«.

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ions sat facing K. Simon. To show that the three triads were
one triad, we draw a diagonal line from 2 to 8, and that line
will pass through 6 : that is to say, in order to form one
triad of the three triads, we take the subjective term of the •
intellectual triad, or 2, Wisdom, as male ; the objective term
of the physical triad, or 8, Strength, as female ; and the syn-
thetic term of the moral and synthetic triad, or 6, Beauty,
as the junction of the two, — and we obtain the formula, —

WISDOM, STRENGTH, AND BEAUTY;

a formula not unknown to such as know the acacia.

If we bring down the first triad (1, 2, and 3) so that it
shall become interlaced with the second triad, the two will
form a Blazing Star, resting on its lower point, which is 6,
Beauty. The first six sephiroth are the six points of the
Blazing Star. On some occasions, the middle column is
regarded as ending at 6, Beauty, and as bearing the Blaz-
ing Star for its ornamented capital ; or, which is the same
thing, as bearing the Cubical Stone. The middle column,
as ending with Beauty, and as bearing the Cubical Stone,
is called the Column of Beauty. It is also called the short *
column, because it comprises in its shaft the sephiroth
10, 9, and 6, and nothing higher; and the twisted column,
because it is the synthesis of Jachin and Boaz, inclining
first towards the one, and then towards the other, so as to
be twisted as well as short. To denote its perfection and
spotlessness, it is said to be made of clear white marble.

By the explanation of them in the light of the sephiroth
(numerations or powers), which are intelligible principles,
the nit ID (Tholodoth, lists of generations) mentioned in
the Bereshith become available for the forecasting of the
destinies of nations, churches, and other human, institutions ;
for the thohdoth give, in their serial order, the successive

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steps of the development of principles embodied in social
organizations. We will illustrate this matter by examples.
If we study the .existing situation of France, and remem-
•ber the recent consecutive steps by which she became
what she now is, w© obtain several characteristic terms
of a special series. We may then look into the Bereshith
to find that special series. Applying the existing situ-
ation of France to the term in the series of the Bereshith
to which it corresponds, we are furnished, in the next term
of the series of the Bereshith, with an indication of the
organic posture wh,ich France will next assume. Through
this process we may obtain results characterized by a very
notable degree of accuracy. The present writer has not
qualified himself, by careful practice of this method, to proph-
esy the future of the French nation. He will state, how-
ever, for the satisfaction of the reader, that there is an
extant kabbalistic prophecy, grounded on principles substan-
tially identical with those here mentioned, that promises, for
the month of Kovember, 1879, the establishment of a uni-
versal empire, under the inspiration of France ; France to
be subjected, before 1879, to a process analogous with that
of natural death and spiritual resurrection. This empire
will be at once political and religious ; will be founded on
the principle of universal peace, and on a rational solu-
tion "of the questions (such as those of property and
labor, of women's rights, and the like) which now agitate
society. It will hold the "keys of the East," and will last
354 years and 4 months without material alteration. We
give this prophecy for what it is worth. We disapprove
generally, and on principle, all prophecies that specify
"times and hours."

The names mentioned by the Bereshith in the several
lists of the generations are not at all names of men, but
are names of phases of organic development. All these
names are significant in Hebrew. For example, the name

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Cain signifies possession, property.* The name Abel sig-
nifies vacuity, emptiness, and, in contradistinction from
that of Cain, non-possession, pauperism,^ The murder of
Abel by Cain is the subordination of capital by labor, and
the consequent destruction of capital ; for in the pecu-
liar phase of primitive socialism denoted by the family of
Cain, and whose beginning, course,' and ending were known
by authentic tradition to the writers of the Bereshith, it
was the laborer who was the proprietor, and it was the capi-
talist who lived on the crumbs that fell from the laborer's
table. Cain, the proprietor, was himself a tiller of the soil,
and his children were the inventors of the mechanic arts.
Abel, on the other hand, was a priest ; and the priesthood, in
the early days, comprised all professional men who did nofc
work with their hands, and all general directors of industry.
When Cain slew Abel, he rendered the social synthesis im-
possible : he destroyed that which had been created to make
him, Cain, rich. Seth signifies stability, basis, and, in the
social sphere, order.X Seth is despotism — is the politi-
cal and social structure that was built up, as it respects
its chief comer-stone, upon the dead body of the pauper
Abel.§

Adam was never "perfect in his generations: " he never
walked truly with the Elohim. At first, Cain and Abel
were in the earth, without Seth ; and, afterwards, Cain and
Seth were in it, without Abel. Always one whole- side of
the mystical triangle was lacking. It became necessary,

• And Adam knew Eve his wife ; and she oonoeiyed, and bare ^^p ( Kin, or
Cain, oGquiaitian) ; and she said, ^D'^Sp ( J^en-ithi, I have acquired) a man
with Jehovah. — Oen. iv. 1.

t t3n : He-bel, empty breath, vanity.

X And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his
name TVD (SJteth, appointed, founded); because God has appointed to me,
she said (^i'n^ Sheth-\i), another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.—
Gen. iv. 26.

} Seth and Satan are different forms of the same word.

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therefore, in the plan of Divine Providence, that the primi-
tive humanity should he drowned out.

Noah was ^^ a just man, and perfect in his generations;
and Koah walked with the Elohim. And Noah hegat three
sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet." Ham is the new Cain,
and Japhet is the new Abel.

The times have changed. To-day it is Abel that slays
Cain, capital that robs labor. Seth reigns to-day, as he did
before the flood ; but he founds his sovereignty to-day, not
upon the tyranny of labor, but upon the tyranny of capital.

The list of the generations from Adam to Lamecli —
Adam, Cain, Enoch, Irad, Mehujael, Methusael, Lamech
— gives a perfect series of seven terms. Lamech lived 777
years. "All the days of Lamech were seven hundred
seventy and seven years ; and he died." The generations
from Seth to Noah, including Seth and Noah, give a perfei
series of nine terms, or a triad of triads.

The numbers three, seven, and nine, are holy numbers,

The generations of Japhet, from Gomer to Tiras, form
regular series of seven terms. The generations of Ham,
from Cush (Asiatic Ethiopia) to Nimrod (Babylon), give a
series of seven terms. The generations of Ham, through
Misraim (Egypt) to Philistim, give a triad of triads.

Matthew says (chap. i. ver. 17), "All the generations
from Abraham to David are fourteen (2 X 7) generations ;
and from David unto the carrying-away into Babylon are
fourteen (2 X 7) generations ; and from the carrying-away
into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen (2 X 7) generations."
There were in all, therefore, from Abraham to Christ, forty-
two (6 X 7) generations. This summing-up agrees neither
with Matthew's own list of names, nor with the Old-Testa-
ment record ; but it shows the influence, upon the evangel-
ist's mind, of the Old-Testament philosophy of numbers.
If we take the list given by Luke, and count from Christ,
through Joseph, to Isaac, we find fifty-four (6 X 9) gener-

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ations. Adding to these six series of nines the series of
nines from Abraham, through Arphaxad, to Shem, and the
series of nines from Noah, through Seth, to Adam, we have
just eight series of nines. According to Ltike, therefore,
Jesus was born at the end of the eighth epoch of nines,
in a grand logical series of nines, or triad of triads, com-
mencing at the foundation of human society. According
to Matthew, he was born at the end of the sixth series of
sevens, in a grand logical series of sevens, commencing with
Abraham.

We had occasion to mention, a moment ago, but without
indorsing them, certain prophetic intimations respecting
the destinies of France, and the establishment, in the year
1879, of a universal empire. We have no exact knowledge
of the process, in its details, by which the special results
were obtained, but are informed that the prophecy is
grounded, generally, on the interpretation of a Sabsean
series of 7's, not given in the Bereshith, or given in it, if at
all, under some disguised form. The series is as follows:
1. Saturn; 2. Venus; 3. Jupiter; 4. Mercury; 5. Mars;
6. Luna ; 7. Sol : which is the series, but read backward, of
the planets that govern the characteristics, and the order
of succession, of the seven days of the week ; for Satur-
day is Saturn's day, Friday is Venus's (or Friga's) day,
Thursday is Jupiter's (or Thor's) day ; and so on.

The prophecy in question turns, like other prophecies of
similar nature, on the observed fact, that history continually
repeats itself; going through one completed revolution of
events after another, each revolution being the reproduction,
not by the way of identity, but by the way of analogy, of
the revolutions that preceded it. Human evolutions take
effect in upward spiral movements, and in ever-recurring
circles that rise continually one above another, as circles
succeed each other in the winding stairways on the outside
of the terraced, mound-shaped temples of remote antiquity.
9*

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It is the serpent, — the order of fatality which is without
admixture of liberty, — not human history, that gnaws its
own tail, and reproduces itself in ever-recurring identical
circles. Human history repeats itself, hut always on higher
and higher planes.

The true religion that exists now, always has existed,
and always will exist, among men : but it has presented
itself, in ever-recurring circles, under higher and higher
forms ; *and men have interpreted it differently, according
to their varying intellectual and moral capacities, and
according to the progressive sjiirit of the different ages.
Christ is the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of
the world. No true religious institution is ever abolished
by the new institution that replaces it ; for the new institu-
tion is the old institution itself, but transfigured and glori-
fie'd. Christianity is the rejuvenation and glorification of
the Hebrew religion; just as the Hebrew religion was
the transfiguration and rejuvenation of the Hamitic reli-
gions which preceded it, and had their seats in Egypt and
Babylon. Christianity came to fulfil the law and the proph-
ets, not to destroy them. An approaching rejuvenation
of the Christian religion is clearly foretold in the New
Testament. The second coming of Jesus, and his reign
of a thousand years upon the earth, are written beforehand
with letters of light in the books of the Christian dispen-
sation. The prophecies of the Old Testament, foretelling
the end of the Jewish Church and the establishment of a
new one, are darkness itself when compared with the prom-
ises of glory contained in the Apocalypse of St. John.

If the above-sketched theory be valid, the destinies of the
Christian Church will be a transformed analogical reproduc-
tion, point for point, of the destinies of the Hebrew Church ;
just as the destinies of the Hebrew (or Shemitic) Church
were an analogical reproduction, point for point, of the
destinies of the Hamitic Church which preceded it. Tra-

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cing the analogies, comparing them, and verifying the
accuracy of their sequence in the order of the series, we
find ourselves — or, at the least, we appear to find our-
selves : who knows ? — to he living in a period analogically
resembling the times just preceding the Jewish captivity.
We are to look, therefore, for the appearance, in the im-
mediate future, of a transfigured Nebuchadnezzar at the
head of a transfigured Chaldean empire, and for an ap-
proaching captivity of the Church in some transfigured
Babylon ; the Church to be delivered in due time from
captivity, and restored to its former seat (but shorn of its
initiative) by some transfigured Cyrus at the head of an
army of transfigured Medes and Persians. •

This same series of the seven planets, read, not backward,
but forward, in the direct order of ^^

the days of the week, is evil and dis-
astrous ; for its progress is not then
upward and onward, but distinctly
downward. In it every planet (ex-
cept Sol, who stands always in the
seventh place, or in the house of re-
demption) is afflicted, and sheds
deleterious influence.

This series of evil begins with
Luna, whose portrait is given in
the margin.* The picture repre-
sents the boat of the moon, with the

"Torch-bearer" sailing in it, under the rays of the detesta-
ble inverted five-pointed star. The star is not before the

* The pictures here reproduced may be found in the books of Eliphaz Levi.
They were communicated to the wrlte^i with several others of like character,
by that enthusiastic student of kabbalistic Masonry, the Hon. Charles Levi
Woodbury. The Latin of th? inscriptions, and especially the bad Latin
of some of them, and several other indications, lead us to believe that the
pictures have come down to us with many supposed improvements. The
writer is alone responsible for the explanations given in the text : no such
expUnations came with the pictures as he received them.

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figure, to serve, detestable though it be, as an ideal of life
and conduct, but is vertically above it, as an unseen com-
pressive power. The wings denote initiative faculty.
The "Torch-bearer" is a law to himself: he follows no
ideal, but carries his own incendiary light. Obstinate,
suspicious, and self-sufficient, he dreads nothing so much
as the possibility that he may convict himself, before wit-
nesses, of lack of almighty power. Utterly selfish, and
acting always on the maxim, " Self-preservation is the first
law of nature," he passes like water, and without noticing
the transitions, from one iniquity to another, and wanes and
waxes and changes as the moon waxes and changes ; for it
is under the Aioon's malign aspect that this lunatic lives
and moves. He is ignorant of himself, but knows darkly
the things that are not himself, and calumniates them. In
all things he is perverse.

When many " Torch-bearers " are placed in the same field
of action, they form self-interested cliques and rings that
come into antagonism with each other. All of them ac-
knowledging that " might makes right," supremacy natu-
rally gravitates into the hands of violent desperadoes, and
the weaker parties become fags and slaves of the stronger.
The portrait of " Nembroud," the typical desperado, will
be found on the opposite page.*. He bears the crown, to
denote his authority; and the sword, to denote the source
of his authority. This typical king of spades bears also a
shield, with a device on it, which is the Tower of Babel ;
and this device denotes the ultimate futility of all his
undertakings.

The fags and slaves of Nembroud learn, in the experience
of their abject condition, the^vices that are appropriate to

' * France was in the hands of lunatics when Nembroud-Bonaparte throttled
her : we speak here of the great Napoleon, not the little one. The lesser
Bonaparte was not Nembroud, but Acham, whose portrait will be given a
little farther on.

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fags and slaves. They become reticent, forecasting, treach-
erous, and cunning ; and the distinct consciousness of their
own inherent villany forces itself upon
them. Through the fact oi this con-
sciousness the star of their villany
passes from its occult position over-
head, and places itself in front as an
accepted ideal of life and conduct.
They were knaves before they were
fags and slaves ; but, as expert fags
and slaves, they become conscious and
politic knaves.

The portrait of "Tharthac," the
typical politic knave, is given below,
in the margin.

When Baron Nembroud establishes
his power with a high hand, the serf
Tharthac escapes to some free city, sets up a banking-house,
and ruins Nembroud by lending him
money at usurious rates of interest on
securities deposited in the free city.
For Nembroud cannot carry on his
pillaging expeditions without that
very assistance of Tharthac which
ruins him, Nembroud : therefore
Nembroud detests Tharthac. Gen-
uine nobles and aristocrats always
hate successful business-men who deal
in money. But Tharthac, no matter
how rich he may become, or what high
titles he may achieve, can never be a
real aristocrat, or substitute himself
in the place of Nembroud; for gen-
uine nobility always originates in
highway robbery, armed pillage, and the power of the

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sword, — never in usurious gains, fraudulent commerce,
shoddy-contracts, perversion of public funds, and the power
of the strong-box.*

When his Majesty the Emperor Nembroud is engaged
in foreign wars, Tharthac-Talleyrand, Tharthac-Fouch^,
and their like, work themselves into his confidence, and
become his trusted ministers.

Nembroud never fails to be betrayed at the critical mo-
ment. This fact is placed beyond doubt by the almost
unvarying testimony of history. The knaves held in sub-
jection by Nembroud, and the knaves who have acted as
his instruments, join hands with the knaves and desperadoes
who are his avowed and official enemies. Nembroud's
armies become demoralized by the defection, and are de-
feated at the end in every encounter, as Napoleon I. and
Sardanapalus, and their like, stand ready to testify. New
rulers are raised up ; and a new order of things is inaugu-
rated, — one not based precisely on violence, or precisely on
fraud, but rather on a happy synthetic combination of vio-
lence with fraud.

The portrait of "Acham,'' the representative of legal-
ized scoundrelism, and the legitimate defender of frauds
(interests) organized into institutions, is given on the oppo-
site page. Acham seems, from his attitude in the picture,
to be all right ; and he would be all right, were it not for the
presence of the little devil that holds up his train. t

" Nahema '' (sometimes wrongly taken for " Lilith," who
is Satan's wife) t is the representative of the special wide-

* It was under the Orleans dynasty, which is his authentic embodiment,
that Tharthac shone, with transcendent splendor, in the realm of Frauce.
t Napoleon III. was Nembroud- Acham : M. Thiers Is Tharthac- Acham. •
t According to the Kabbala, there are three chief devils : the first is named
Thohu} the second, Bohui and the third, Thehom. The seven tabernacle:*, or
hells, are seven deadly vices. Samael, the Angel of Death, rules over the
whole. SamaSl, evil desire, Satan, and the serpent that seduced Eve, are the
same thing. SnmaSl's wife is called the Strumpet: he aud she, united, are
called the Beast. This Strumpet is the Talmudic LUUh.

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spread, all-pervadiDg, and inevitable corruption that eats
out the heart of iniquitous and falsely-refined societies.
She seduces Acham, leads him
astray, and causes, him to de-
stroy himself by his own folly.
She reigned triumphantly in the
times of the regency in France,
was the principal ornament of
the court circles of Napoleon
III., and graced the banquet-
in g-table of Belshazzarwhen he
was slain in his own palace by
the Medes and Persians. Her
mighty deeds are everywhere
spoken of in history. ^ Her por-
trait will be found in the margin.

" Nabam,'' the personage
whose portrait is given on the

next page, is the gentleman in the clerk's office, with whom
we, all of us, whether collective
peoples or individual men and
women, will have to settle our
accounts, Saturday night, for
the week's work. Nabam is
Saturn, Nahema is Venus,
Acham is Jupiter, Tharthac is
Mercury, Nembroud is Mars,
and the Light-bearer is the
Moon ; and all of them, as here
depicted, are shining with ma-
lignant aspect. And thus ends
the eventful history of the life ^
and adventures of " Mr. Bad-
man."

The characteristics of the planets^ as afiELicted; are here

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given in some detail, and their normal characteristics are
analogous to those stated, but opposite.
If the reader desires a more full account
of the characteristics of the several
planets, he may find it in any good
book of astrology.

Conclusion.

Thus far we have been able, and with no little difficulty,
to trace, in a very superficial manner, the deep doctrine of
the Kabbala. Our exposition is wholly inadequate, and
perhaps, in some minor points, incorrect ; for the texts we
have interpreted are very dark. We trust, however, that
what we have said will suffice to break the ten seals of the
lesser Zohar^ and to make it an open book.

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THE

FACTS OF CONSCIOUSNESS,

THE PHILOSOPHY OP ME. HEEBEET SPENCEE.

10 109

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■'■-1

THE FACTS OP CONSCIOUSNESS,

THE PHILOSOPHY OP MB. HERBERT SPENCER.

What is consciousness f It is the state which the Ego iff in when it
perceives that it is perceiving.

Certain French physiologists inform us, that when
we see an outward object, say a tree for example, we
take cognizance of it, not with the whole brain, but
with one only of the two hemispheres into which the
brain is found, upon inspection, to be divided. They
say, furthermore, that, as soon as the one half of the
brain begins to take cognizance of the outward object,
the other half begins to take cognizance of the act of
the first half. Thus, according to this scheme, man
perceives with one half of the brain, and with the
other half becomes conscious of the perception. This
theory is unsatisfactory. It is partially confirmed by
authentic cases recorded of men and women par-
alyzed in one half of the body, and consequently in
one half of the brain, who retain the faculty of per-
ception, but speak from themselves, not as J, but in

the third person only, mhe or she^ showing that they

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have lost the sentiment of their own personality. We
have, however, never heard of any special case where
a man was inwardly conscious, or professed himself to
be inwardly conscious, that he perceived with one half
of his brain, and perceived the perception with the
other. Besides, the theory is not properly verified ;
and there are very few scientific men, if indeed any,
who would assign to it a rank higher than that of a
mere hypothesis dealing with mental machinery only,
and the manner of its working, but saying nothing
of the inward force that perceives. Let us take it,
therefore, for what it appears to be worth, and pass
to the coi\sideration of other and equally plausible
hypotheses.

Many psychologists affirm that there is in the na-
ture of ideas, cognitions, notions, and perceptions, an
inhering necessity for such a concatenation or associa-
tion of each with all the others, as will account,
among other things, for the observed facts of con-
sciousness. Spinoza says, " We clearly understand
why the mind from the though't of one thing immedi-
ately falls into the thought of another, wliich has no
resemblance to the first. For example : from the
thought of the word pomum^ a Roman immediately
thinks of a certain fruit, — an apple, which has no
resemblance to the articulate sound, nor any thing in
common with it, save that the body of the man was
often affected at once by the two things, the word
and the apple ; he having often heard the word po-
mum when seeing the fruit it signified. It is in this
way that thoughts of one thing lead to thoughts of
another, according as custom or habit orders the

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imagination of the thing in the body. A soldier, for
instance, when he sees the foot-prints of a horse in
the sand, from thoughts of the horse immediately falls
into thoughts of the rider of the horse, thence into
thoughts of war, &c. ; whilst a peasant, from such
foot-prints, forthwith falls into thoughts of fields,
ploughs, &c. : that is, each in his own way, and as
he is wont to connect the images of things, passes
from one thought into another of this or that com-
plexion." The following affirmations, or the sub-
stance of them, are frequently met with in philosophi-
cal writings, though seldom, if ever, under a distinct
form of statement. They are suggested to us at this
time by scattered enunciations and illustrations found
in the books of Mr. Herbert Spencer : — Since every
mental state is involved, by the accidental circum-
stances of its occurrence, with every other mental
state, it follows that each state suggests every other
state, and that all the states form a connected series,
in which each term implies, and is implied by, all the
other terms. Thus all the mental states form one
complex whole, a unity of totality, so thoroughly
tmited, that the whole exists in each part, and each
part in the whole. This inter-relation between men-
tal states, by which the mind, in reviewing them, is
able to pass regularly from one to another, is con-
sciousness; and the organic sum-total of all the men-
tal states, actual and potential, of any individual who
calls himself JEgo^ is precisely that entity which the
individual designates as JEffo.

This theory is also unsatisfactory. The affirmation
that the mental states, taken together, of any individ-

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ual man, make up aa organic unity of totality, of which
the destruction of any one part would involve the
destruction of the whole, is not unplausible ; but the
aflSrmation, that this organic unity of totaUty is what
the individual cognizes as Ego^ awakens doubt. The
Ego cognizes itself as perceiver, and not as a mass of
perceptions. Such is the fact as shown hy authentic
observation in consciousness. We speak from the
facts of our own consciousness ; and the reader knows
better than we do whether the facts of his conscious-
ness are like those of ours.

Men, generally, when they enter a shop where
articles are made by machinery, distinguish between
themselves and the machinery, and also between them-
selves and the working of the machinery ; cognizing
the machinery, and the working of the machinery, as
things perceived^ and cognizing themselves (but with-
out giving special definiteness to their notion of them-
selves) as perceivers. In Uke manner, meditative
men (and such men are not met with every day),
when they inspect the working of their own minds,
distinguish between themselves and their mental
states, and also between themselves and the mechan-
ism, and the working of the mechanism, of their own
minds ; cognizing their mental states, the mechanism
of their own minds, and the workings of that mechan-
ism, as things perceived ; while they cognize them-
selves, on the contrary, not as things perceived, but as •
perceivers. It follows from what is here said, that
facts of direct and authentic observation, which every
intelligent observer is competent to verify for himself,
go to confirm our definition of consciousness as we

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have given it, and to show that consciousness is, as
we have said, " the state the Ego is in when it per-
ceives that it is perceiving ; " and to explode the coun-
ter definition, that " consciousness is the inter-relation
between mental states, by which the mind, in review-
ing them, is enabled to pass from any one of them to
any or all of the others." The same facts go to show
that the Ego^ which is revealed to itself as a perceiver^
is not at all that organic sum-total of. mental states
which is revealed to it as something that it perceives^
and from which, as such, it contradistinguishes itself.
Authentic observation teaches us that the Ego is con-
scious of itself, always as perceiver^ and never as thing
perceived.

This false and utterly untenable theory, that " con-
sciousness is that inter-relation between mental states,
by which the mind, in reviewing them, is enabled to
pass from any one of them to any or all of the
others," is the one intentionally set forth, if we under-
derstand him rightly, by Mr. Herbert Spencer, in his
book entitled " First Principles of a New System of
Philosophy." * Mr. Spencer gives no definition of the

* Mr. Spencer says (Principles of Psychology, p. 500), " Considered
as an internal perception, the current illusion respecting the will consists in
supposing that at each moment the Ego is something more than the aggregate
of feelings and ideasy actttal and nascejit, which then exists.**

Speaking of a voluntary action, he says, " But the entire group of
psychical states which constituted the antecedent of the action also con-
stituted himself*^ — that is, constituted the man, or actor — " at that moment,
— constituted his psychical self; that is, as distinguished from his physical
9elf. It is alike true that he determined the action, and that the aggregate
of his feelings and ideas determined it: sincey during its existence, this aggre-
gate constitiUed his then state of conscioumess ; that is, himself* — Psyc.^
p. 601.

And again: ** The composite psychical state which excites the action is

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word consciousness ; in fact, he gives no philosophical
definition of any thing whatever : but he allows his
notion, such as it is, of consciousness, to be gathered
from a comparison of scattered sentences. Mr. Spen-
/ cer's book may be authority in matters of physical
science ; we are not competent to express any opinion
on this head : but why he should have characterized
it as a treatise of philosophy, we know not. Accord-
ing to Mr. Spencer, the expressions mental state and
state of consciousness are equivalent in meaning. We
will, in a moment, quote texts of his wherein he inti-
mates as much. But he ought to know, and doubt-
less does know, that the word mind is exceedingly
comprehensive ; while the word consciousness^ on the
contrary, is somewhat exclusive. The mind has many
(so-called) faculties; as attention, memory, imagina-
tion, and the like, among which consciousness counts
as one only. Every state of consciousness is a mental
state ; but there* are many mental states that are not
at all states of consciousness.

Mr. Spencer says, " Consciousness implies perpetual
change, and the perpetual establishment of relations
between its successive phases. To be known at all,
every mental affection must be known as such or such;
as like these foregoing ones, or unlike those : if it is

at the same time the Ego tohick is said to wiU the action. Natarally enoagh,
then, the subject of such psychical changes says that he wills the action;
Bince, psychically considered, he is at that moment nothing more Hum the com'
posite state of consciottsness by which the action is excited," — Psyc., p. 601.

We quote these extracts from the Principles of Psychology, instead
of reciting passages from the First Principles of Philosophy; for it is our aim
to show that Mr. Spencer's doctrine is one and the same in Ms different
books. Our quotations from the First Prmciples of Philosophy will b«
given, not in the footnotes, but in the text.

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not thought of in connection with others, not dis-
tinguished or identified by comparison with others, it
is not recognized, is not a state of consciousness at
all." — FirBt Principles^ p. 63. That is to say, con-
sciousness, objectively considered, appears in a series
of successive states, every one of which is contradis-
tinguished from every other, although each one of
them implies, and is implied by, the others.* Mr.
Spencer goes on to ask, in this connection, a very sug-
gestive question, as follows : " What shall we say of
these successive ideas and impressions that constitute
consciousness ? " The word constitute is a strong one.
Our successive states of consciousness constitute, in
the sense of giving origin to them, the contents of the
field of memory and imagination that is spread before
our inward vision; but they no more constitute con-
sciousness than the successive phases of the moon
'^ constitute the moon. Our successive observations of
the moon give us such pictures as we can make for
ourselves, in imagination, of that satellite of the
earth ; but our imaginative picture of the moon, and
its inherent constitution, are two different things.
Consciousness is the immediate knowledge that the
Ego has of itself as perceiving agent ; and that knowl-
edge is consciousness so long only as it is immediate.
/ A past act of consciousness is no longer an act of con-
/ sciousness ; for it has become a fact of memory. When
the Ego perceives a fact iff memory, it perceives con-
sciously; but the consciousness is in the present

* "Every element of that aggregate of activities constituting a comcwm-
nen is known as belonging to consciousness only by its cohesion with the
rest"— P*^p. 16L

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perception, not in the past one. The act of con-
sciousness is always present. When the Ego knows
knowingly, it is itself the knowing subject ; the thing
that it contradistinguishes from itself as non-Ego^ and
thing known, is the object; the immediate knowledge
which the subject has of the object is the relation
between the two: subject, object, and relation — not
successive states — constitute consciousness. In the
lax, improper, ordinary, unphilosophical, and indefinite
use of the word consciousness, our whole life of
memory and imagination is characterized as a life of
consciousness : and we are said to be conscious
of things when we remember them, or imagine them
only; that is, when we are conscious, not of the
things, but of some former states of consciousness
now existing in memory, in which states we were con-
scious of the things, or of something vaguely analo-
gous to them. We are personally acquainted with
blockheads who say they are conscious of their own
immortality. Much latitude must be allowed to na-
tive stupidity, to torpidity of brain, and to restless
frivolity ; but, from Mr. Spencer, better things than
these were expected. Mr. Spencer says again, " The
personality of which each is conscious, and of which
the existence is to each a fact beyond all others the
most certain, is yet a thing which cannot truly be
known at all : knowledge of it is forbidden by the
nature of thought." — F. P., p. 66. We are confi-
dent that the case is not at all so desperate as it is
here represented. We will trust ourselves to make
a few feeble remarks on this point.
In consciousness, the Ego always knows itself as «m6-

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4
ject^ the object as object^ and the relation as relation.*
The Uffo is never conscious of itself as object : and,
when it considers itself as object, it does so, not in
consciousness (although it may do it consciously), but
by means of representations that it objectively makes
of itself to itself in memory and imagination ; which
representations are almost always (probably always)
more or less deceptive. Again: the ^go is never con-
scious of the object as subject ; but, when it affirms
that an object (say another Ugo} is also subject in
some other system of consciousness, it does so on the
strength of reasoning by induction, basing its affirma-
tions on congruities and incongruities presented to it
objectively by facts of memory and imagination.
Finally, there are very few men (and Mr. Spencer
does not appear to be of the select number) that have
made themselves competent, by long self-training and
by painful reflection, to distinguish clearly between
the subject and object in consciousness. All men^
however, appear to be competent to perceive the rela-
tion that holds both object and subject in solution.
All men are, apparently, conscious of the act of im-
mediate knowing ; which act is the relation between
the subject and the object, and implies, to discerning
persons, but to discerning persons only, both the sub-
ject and the object. By what word is this relation

* ** To say that a state of consciousness has considerable continuity, is
to say that it is a distinct element of consciousness; which is the same
thing as being known or felt" —-Psyc^ p. 479.

Every state of consciousness is a systematic whole, composed of three
eUmerUa^ and no more, — subject, object, relation. One state of consciousness
differs from another by reason of a difference in the objects, and, conse-
quently, in the relations; but the subject is always the same.

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designated in common language? Obviously, it is
not called relation ; for, if the ordinary mind could
compass the notion of relation in consciousness, it
would be aware, which it is not, of the contradistinc-
tion between the subject and the object. The rela-
tion is sometimes called by persons advanced in the
art of reflection, but who have not yet attained to
distinct self-consciousness, immediate knowledge ; and
sometimes it is called, but more vaguely, intuition.
But what is the common word used by everybody to
designate this special thing that everybody appears to
know ? In the English language, the clearly appre-
hended relation between the subject and the object —
apprehended, however, not as a relation, but as some-
thing given in itself — is called life. If any man
will analyze the immediate intuition he has of his own
life, he will find it resolve itself into an intuition of
himself as knower, an intuition of some object known,
and an intuition of the act of knowing ; that is, he
will find he has been analyzing the fact of his own
consciousness. Few men have any clear knowledge
of themselves as subject : but every man knows that
he is alive ; every man has an intuition, in conscious-
ness, of his own life. Men are not conscious, and we
are forward to confess it, of the life of the body.
Consciousness, or immediate intuition, says nothing
to man about the circulation of the blood, the func-
tions of the liver, or the movements of digestion. If
men know any thing about the life of the body, or
know even the bare fact of the body's life, they know
it scientifically only, as they know any other physio-
logical fact, and derive their knowledge from observa-

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lion and induction.* It is the life of the soul, and
that life only, which is immediately perceived in con-
sciousness. What is the life of the soul ? Observa-
tion in consciousness teaches us that it is a life of in-
telligence; that it consists mainly in immediate
knowing: for if we feel, or will, we know that we
feel, and know that we will. More careful and some-
what painful observation teaches us that there is not
only a life of the soul, but also something that is
alive, — a knower. This knower perceives itself as
subject, never as object, and as an intelligence; and
this immediate perception, or intuition, of active and
spontaneous intelligence, is the only adequate knowl-
edge the soul has of the fact of intelligence. If the
soul attribute intelligence to other beings, it does so
by induction only, and in the light of its intuitive
notion of intelligence. The soul also perceives itself
as one in the strictest sense of the word unity. It
has also intuitions of identity and diversity . We might
continue this enumeration through a detailed list of a
thousand and one other intuitions, all of them un-
scientific in the sense that they are above science, and
conditions without which science would be impossible.
Such is the genesis of first truths.

* ** Life i3 the continuoas adjustment of internal relations to external
relations.*' — Ptyc^ p. 298. This appears to be a partinl description of the
circumstances and manifestations of life, rather than a definition oflifc it-
self. If the remarks in our text are well founded, life is the apontaneous
activity of a real subject : therefore, tince there is no mbfect without an object,
aU life is sybjectvoe-otjectice. In intellectual life, consciousness is actual: in
the lower forms of life, it is, perhaps, potential only. Mr. Spencer will never
accept these last statements: for the affirmation of the spontaneity of the
subject — that is, of the reality of the subject — is the negation of his pecu-
liar theory of the persistency of force; that is to say, of his absolute and
systematic materialism.
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Why, then, does Mr. Spencer say that our own
personality, the thing of which (by his confession) we
are more certain than we are of any other, is a thing
not truly known at all ? Why does he say that the
very nature of thought forbids all knowledge by us
of our own selves ? What does he mean by thought ?
Mr. Spencer has trained himself to the methods of
physical science ; but, as it would appear, he has not
trained himself to habits of observation in conscious-
ness. The Ego is conscious of a multitude of things
as objects, and contradistinguishes them from each
other, notes their peculiar characteristics, classifies
them, and obtains vivid imaginative representations
of them. This contradistinction of objects from each
other, this noting of their peculiarities, this classifi-
cation of them, this obtaining of vivid representations
of them in imagination, is what Mr. Spencer calls
thought. According to him, the knowledge the Ego
has of itself as subject is no knowledge at all, and
has no place in the realm of thought, because it is
not objective knowledge. In point of fact (and to
that extent Mr. Spencer is in th3 right), the Ego is
for itself, so far as conscious knowledge is concerned,
alone of its kind : it knows itself as subject, not as
object, and knows no other subject directly : it has
nothing with which it can compare itself, and render
vivid, by similitude or contrast, the utterly inade-
quate notion that it forms of itself in imagination ;
and it classifies itself as altogether outside of all
classification.* Mr. Spencer may, therefore, very well

* " Under its subjective aspect, psychology is a totally uniqne science,
independent of, and antithetically opposed to, all other sciences whatever.
The thoughts and feelings that constitute a consciousness ( ? ), and are at^^olatelv

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affirm that the Ego does not know itself in the same
way that it knows objects, since it knows itself as
subject, and not as object ; also that it does not come
by induction to a Iknowledge of itself as it does to a
knowledge of the facts of physical science, since it
knows itself directly, and not by induction, as sub-
ject : but he talks absurdly when he says that .'' the
thing of which we are conscious, the thing of which
we are the most certain," is a thing " that we do not
truly know at all." He may put away a caterpillar,
transfixed with a pin, in its proper place in his glass
cabinet, as something identified, thoroughly known,
and duly labelled : nevertheless, Mr. Spencer's soul,
which is always with him, as a thing outside of all
classification, is better known to him, although not
objectively known, not picturable in his imagination,
than any dead and dried-up object in his whole col-
lection.*

We submit the following syllogism (if it may be
called one) to the reader, for purposes of illustration :
" That which is known to the subject is objective :
sometimes the Ego becomes known to itself ; there-
fore the subject is sometimes its own object." This

inaccessible to any but the possessor of that consciousness, form an ex-
istence that has no place among the existences with which the rest of the
sciences deal." — PsyCy 140.

* **To know any thing is to distinguish it as such or such; to class it
as of this or that order. An object is said to be but little known when it is
alien to objects of which we have had experience ; and it is said to be well
known when there is a great community of attributes between it and ob-
jects of which we have had experience. Hence, by implication, an object,
is completely known when this recognized community is complete, arid
eompUtely unknown when there it no recognized communUy ai aU,^* — Psyc,^
p. 148.

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is a mere sophistical catch of words. For the subject
is known to itself in consciousness, always as subject,
and never as object. It is, therefore, not true that
every thing known to the subject is objective. All
this, we take it, is very plain : nevertheless, ingenious
and subtle thinkers, adopting the vocabulary of their
own language for ontological authority, and using the
rules of syntax for dialectics, have brought them-
selves to believe, through this same verbal catch,
that the subject is, in consciousness, its own object.
Victor Cousin, who ought to have known better, and
did know better, forgot himself in listening to his .
own talk, as was his not unfrequent custom, and af-
firmed the subject to be its own object ; thus deliver-
ing himself over, bound hand and foot, to the tender
mercies of Sir W. Hamilton, who stood ready to
attend to his case, and did attend to it. Jouffroy,
a disciple of Cousin, talked so bewilderingly in his
books about consciousness, simply because the spec-
tator in the pit of a theatre sees the actor who is on
the stage, that his readers came to doubt whether
they were the actor on the stage, or the spectator in
the pit, or the spectator on the stage, or the actor
in the pit, or whether they were both in the pit and
on the sta'ge, or neither in the pit nor on the stage.
Pierre Leroux effectually attended to Jouffroy's case.
Mr. Mansel, as quoted by Mr. Spencer, says, "(7ow-
seiousness is impossible except in the form of a eela-
TiON. There must be a subject, or person conscious^
and an object, or thing of which he is conscious.
Tliere can be no consciousness without the union of
these two factors; and^ in that union^ each exists only

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a% it is related to the other. The subject is subject
only so far as it is conscious of an object; the object is
object only so far as it is apprehended by a subject ;
and the destruction of either is the destruction of con-
sciousness itself.^' — F, P., p. 78. This is the truth,
but not the whole truth. We have not had the good
fortune to read any of Sir W. Hamilton's writings,
and know them at second-hand only, and from ex-
tracts quoted into other books. We are nevertheless
confident that the foregoing is a correct statement of
Hamilton's doctrine. We subscribe to it in all its
parts : we might wish to add to it ; but we would not
alter a word of it.

Mr. Spencer quotes also from Mr. Mansel the fol-
lowing sentences of a different tenor, and without
any expression of disapprobation: "The verj^ con-
ception of consciousness, in whatever mode it may
be manifested, necessarily implies distinction between
one object and another. To be conscious, we must
be conscious of something ; and that something can
only be known as that which it is by being distin-
guished from that which it is not. " — F. P., p. 76.
Mr. Spencer draws attention to six of these words by
putting them in Italics, indicating that they contain
the really important part of the statement. They
are, in fact, important, and for two reasons : first, be-
cause the affirmation covered by these words is the
only one in the whole statement that is distinctly
false; and, secondly, because they show that — let
him know what he may about mind in general — Mr.
Spencer knows very little about consciousness in

particular. In the act of consciousness, as such, the
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distinction is never between one object and another^
as Mr. Mansel affirms, and Mr. Spencer intimates,
but always between the subject and the object ; which
is something very different. Speaking for himself,
and quoting neither Hamilton nor Mansel, Mr.
Spencer says, " Every complete act of consciousness,
besides distinction and relation, also implies likeness.
Before it can become an idea^ or constitute a piece
of knowledge, a mental state must not only be
known as separate in kind from certain foregoing
states to which it is known as related by succession,
but it must further be known as of the same kind
with certain other foregoing states." — F. P., p. 79.
Pourquoi? Mr. Spencer begins with the mention of
consciousness, and goes on to talk about the general
action of the mind. For him, an " act of conscious-
ness" and a "mental state" are the same thing.
Nothing can be known, according to him, that cannot
be objectively distinguished from something else that
is objectively known, and also " likened " to some
certain other thing that is objectively known : noth-
ing, he intimates, can become "a piece of knowledge "
until it has become a fact of memory. There is no
method of acquiring knowledge except the one used
by naturalists in the prosecution of physical investi-
gations; and therefore that which is known immedi-
ately, by infallible intutition, is not known at all.
We are now prepared to take cognizance, without
astonishment, of the following remarkable sentence :
" It may readily be shown that a cognition of self,
properly so called, is absolutely negatived by the laws
of thought." — F. JP., p. 65. These are no mere verbal

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cavils. Mr, Spencer ignores, not only in his defini-
tions (such as they are) and in his first principles, the
whole spiritual nature of man, but he does the same
tiling in his extended expositions. His entire doc-
trine is a thinly-disguised system of materialism ; and
the ostentatious arguments against materialism, in his
treatise on Psychology, are simply sophistical and
misleading, being based on mistaken presentations
of the question.* It is, of course, impossible for us
to quote Mr. Spencer's extended expositions : the
space at our disposal allows of nothing of the kind.
We refer the reader to Mr. Spencer's books.

We quote one other passage as conclusive : " The
mental act in which self is known implies a per-
ceiving subject and a perceived object. If, then,
the object perceived is self, what is the subject
that perceives ? or, if it be the true self that thinks,
what other self can it be that is thought of?
Clearly a true cognition of self implies a state
in which the knower and the known are one, —
in which the subject and object are identified ; and
this Mr. Mansel rightly holds to be the annihila-
tion of both." — F, P., p. 65. There is your verbal
catch for you! Neither Cousin nor Jouffroy ever
perpetrated any thing more exquisite than this piece
of reasoning. Who told Mr. Spencer that the ob-
ject perceived in consciousness is self? Self is the

* " Those who wish to see materialism refuted by philosophic reason-
ing, and not by appeals to vulgar prejudice, may be referred to the latter
portion of Mr. Spencer's lately-published volume on Psychology.'* — Letter
of March 1, 1871, to the New -York World, from Mr, John Fuke of Har-
vard Utdoernty,

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mbject perceived. The subject and the object are
never identified in consciousness. " The subject is
subject only so far as it is conscious of an object."
To be conscious of an object is to consciously perceive
that object : therefore, when the subject is conscious
of an object as object, it is also, and in the same act,
always conscious of itself as subject. Observation in
consciousness is the only evidence to be adduced on
this point. If the subject attempt to cognize itself
directly as object, consciousness is at once lost, and
remains lost until the subject again cognizes some
object as object. Attempts of the subject to cognize
itself directly as object are utterly futile : they, more-
over, often occasion a dangerous disorganization of
the nervous system, and, if persisted in, may provoke
abnormal trances, perhaps ending in death. In the
full act of consciousness, the subject, the object, and
the relation, all three of them, become known to the
subject, — the subject as subject, the object as object,
and the relation as relation.

Mr. Spencer says, again, " In brief, a thing cannot
at the same instant be both subject and object of
thought; and yet the substance of mind must be
this before it can be known." — Psyc.^ p. 148. Since,
according to Mr. Spencer, the subject cannot know
itself as subject, and since, certainly, as Mr. Spencer
acknowledges, it cannot know itself as object, we
respectfully inquire upon what groun'fe Mr. Spencer
affirms that there is any subject at all. A philosophy
that ignores the human soul is usually characterized
as a materialistic philosophy, just as a philosophy that
ignores God is characterized as an atheistic philoso-

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phy. The facts being patent, why does Mr. Fiske
defend Mr. Spencer from the imputation of material-
ism?

Materialism naturally gives birth to a system of
morality that is more practised than praised. To call
a man a materialist is to give him a bad name.
Nevertheless, a man should never desert, or be
ashamed of, his own colors : if he is a materially,
both he and his friends ought either to say so, or to
say nothing on the subject. The conscientious mate-
rialists, and their first disciples, are usually estimable
and well-meaning men. It is not thej'-, but the pro-
miscuous and more practical adherents to their doc-
trines, who professedly put Mammon above God, and
to-day organize the religion of the legislative lobbies
and political caucuses, the religion of the Bonapartes,
of the Rothschilds, and of Shoddy ; the reUgion of
the great manufacturing centres ; the religion of Wall
Street, State Street, and the wharves ; the religion of
the English ploutocracy ; the religion of interested
philanthropy and of despotic charity ; in short, the
religion of the special corrupt and corrupting ten-
dences of the nineteenth century, against the religion
of Him who said, " It is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to
enter the kingdom of heaven." Materialism is the
philosophy, not of sensuality, but of the power and
course of this world. Sensuality is a law to itself,
and asks no sanction from philosophy. Jesus made a
whip of small cords, and drove the money-changers
out of his Father's temple ; but to-day, in many of
the Boston and New- York churches, the money-

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changers drive Jesus out of his own temple. If ma-
terialism is true, then the religion of Mammon is
true, and the religion of the New Testament is an
enthusiastic error. Jesus said, " For judgment I am
come into the world. . . . Now is the judgment of
tliis world ; now is the prince of this world cast out.
. . . The prince of this world cometh, and hath
nothing in me. ... If the world hate you, ye know
that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of
the world, ye know that the world would love its own ;
but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen
you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
. . . The world cannot receive the Comforter, the
Spirit of truth, because it seeth him not, neither
knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth
with you, and shall be in you. . . . Peace I leave
with you; my peace I give unto you: not as the
world giveth give I unto you." The style of the
New Testament, as a relief from the style of Mr.
Spencer, is absolutely refreshing. It is consoling to
think that the spirit of the nineteenth century is the
spirit of the nineteenth century only; while, the spirit
of Christ is of yesterday, to-day, and forever.

In reading the first part of Mr. Spencer's book,
we learn that his professed method is one of elimina-
tion, and not one of synthesis. He has no faith in the
reconciliation of contradictions, or rather no accurate
knowledge of the theory of such reconciliation.
When he is in the presence of a contradiction, he ex-
punges every thing on either side that conflicts with
any thing on the other. The residuum, which he pre-
sents as something large and comprehensive, is, usual-

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ly, a fact, not of knowledge, but of ignorance, and yet
a fact which implies that there is something to be
known, — a fact so vague, so abstract, and so indefi-
nite, that few persons would care whether it is veri-
fiable, or the contrary. He says, " We have to
compare all opinions of the same genus ; to set aside,
as more or less discrediting one another, those various
special and concrete elements in which such opinions
disagree ; to observe what remains after the dis-
cordant constituents have been eliminated ; and to
find for this remaining constituent that abstract
expression which holds true throughout its divergent
modifications." — F. P., p. 127. Again : after enu-
merating several special systems of philosophy, he
says, ''That which remains as the common element
in these conceptions of philosophy, after the elimina-
tion of their discordant elements, is knowledge of the
highest degree of generality.'' — F. P,^ p. 131. The
Italics are Mr. Spencer's. This method is essentially
Oriental, — between three and four thousand years
behind the times, and perhaps derived from the
sages of Benares. Fortunately for himself and for
his readers, Mr. Spencer is, on almost all occasions
where matters of natural science are concerned,
utterly false to his own method.

In the publisher's advertisement, printed at the
end of the book, the following sentences are quotod
from '' The National Quarterly Review : " " It Avas
reserved for Herbert Spencer to discover the funda-
mental and all-comprehensive law which is found to
explain alike the phenomena of man's history and
those of external nature. This sublime discovery,

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that the universe is in a continuous process of evolu-
tion from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous,
with which only Newton's law of gravitation is at all
worthy to be compared, underlies not only physics,
but also history. It reveals the law to which social
changes conform." In point of fact, the statement
that the process of evolution is from the homogeneous
to the heterogeneous is the true culminating point of
Mr. Spencer's book. This law, however, is not ob-
tainable by Mr. Spencer's method of elimination and
exhaustion. It is the resolution by synthesis, and not
by elimination, of a special contradiction. It is an old
and well-known Hegelian formula, used frequently by
Proudhon, and somewhat modified in the enunciation
by Mr. Spencer, but not improved by the modifica-
tion. Besides, the Hegelians do not claim it as
originating with themselves, — at the least, they
ought not to claim it. It is, in all appearance, cabaU
istic ; and we should not be in the least surprised to
find it in the Zohar^ or Book of Splendor.

Mr. Spencer is, however, in matters that would
seem to require an observation by the mind of its
own operations, usually true to his own method. In
the presence of a psychological contradiction, he
never thinks of observing the facts in his own mind,
but immediately tabulates what is said on the one
side and the other of the question, strikes out the dis-
discordant terms, and takes the worthless residuum
for a statement of final and general truth. When
Hamilton uses astonishing phrases, such as, " the
conditionally unlimited," " the unconditionally unlim-
ited," and bewildering terms, such as " the unthinka-

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ble/' it is very easy to find common words to express
all that is true and expressible in them, leaving the
strange terms and phrases themselves to perform
their only proper purpose, — that of amazing the
groundlings. But this is not Mr. Spencer's method.
Besides, the faculty, of tall talking did not die Av^ith
Hamilton.* When Sir W. Hamilton, yielding to
the proclivities of his mental constitution, simply
" squirts," Mr. Spencer, with some strange sextant
that he has, takes the altitude of the " squirt ; " and
he also takes the amplitude, and determines the
orientation of the same, by means of some strange
azimuth compass that he uses. If nobody " squirts "
on the opposirte side of the question, Hamilton's

• "If by the phrase, *8abstance of mind,' is to be understood mind as
qualitatively differentiated in each portion that is inseparable by introspec-
tion, but seems homogeneous and undecoraposable, then we do know some-
thing about the substance of mind, and may eventually know more." —
Psyc.j p. 145. The style of the first half of this passage appears to be
neither " qualitatively nor quantitatively differentiable " from that of some
of our more learned female-suffrage ladies : it is a style to be avoided.

Again: " We call that person a materialist who maintains the metaphysi-
cal thesis, that the objective reality which underlies and causes the phenom-
enal manifestations of consciousness is identical with the objective reality
which underlies and causes the phenomenal manifestations of matter; and
who, furthermore, insists upon calling this single objective reality and com-
mon cause of the two sets of phenomena by the name of matter." — Mr.
Fiske's Letter of March 1 to the New - York World. We take off our hat in the
presence of this stupendous definition of materialism Mr. Fiske fires these
hard phrases at Dr. McCosh; and we place ourselves beyond reach of the
explosion, with the remark, *' Let the hardest fend off ! " But w^hy does
Mr. Fiske say, " The objective reality which underlies and causes the phe-
nomenal manifestations of consciousness," — if any one knows what that
may mean, — instead of saying, as he ought, " the subjective reality " ? It is
hardly fair to insinuate, by a mere catch of words, a denial of the real
existence of the subject, and then to conclude the whole question by a
captious definition. Better tilings than these were expected from Mr. Fiske.
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" squirt " goes bodily into Mr. Spencer's residuum of
truth, since there accidentally happens to be nothing
to offset and cancel it. It is not Hamilton's meaning
that goes into the residuum ; for Spencer never,
when the question is one of consciousness, or
of observation in consciousness, catches Hamilton's
meaning : but it is the phenomenal " squirt " itself,
regarded as an observable and classifiable object of
investigation, that goes in. Hamilton seems to have
done more than all other writers taken together for
the bedevilling of what Mr. Spencer calls his " new
system of philosophy." If Mr. Spencer's conclu-
sions depend for their scientific vitality upon the.
premises and arguments by which he -supports them,
their hold upon life is frail enough. For instance,
Mr. Spencer says, " If it can be shown that the per-
sistence of force is not a datum of consciousness, . . .
then, indeed, it will be shown that the theory of
evolution has not the high warrant claimed for it." —
F. P., p. 553. It is lawful to think and to affirm,
that the theory of the persistence of force is not at
all " a datum of consciousness ; " and also that the
theory of evolution may be true, but for reasons
other than those assigned by Mr. Spencer. Mr.
Spencer says also, "The sole truth that transcends
experience by underlying it is the persistence of
force." — F. P., p. 192. This is a remarkable state-
ment ; but it excites in us no surprise. How does
Mr. Spencer, or anybody else, know how many
truths there are that nobody as yet knows any thing
about ? We have the boldness to affirm, that the
theory of the persistence of force, as it is presented

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by Mr. Spencer,* is distinctly not true. He says,
again, *' Deeper than demonstration, deeper than
definite cognition, deep as the very nature of mind,
is the postulate at which we have arrived. Its
authority transcends all other whatever ; for not only
is it given in the constitution of our own consciousness^
but it is impossible to imagine a consciousness so consti--
tuted as not to give it^ — JP. P., p. 192. The postu-
late here triumphantly celebrated, and nowhere
proved, is that of the persistence of force. The
Italics are ours : we might also have given exclama-
tion-marks ; but there is no call for them. It is a pity
that so much eloquence is so utterly wasted.

Kreeshna says in the " Bhagvat Geeta," " At the
end of the formation, at the end of the day of Brahma,
all things, O son of Koontee ! return into my pri-
mordial source ; and, at the beginning of another for-
mation, I create them all again. I plant myself in my
own virtue, and create again and again this assem-
blage of beings, this whole, from the power of Nature
without power." The Laws of Menu speak to the
same purpose, saying, " On the coming-forth of that
day, all things proceed from invisibility to visibility :
so, on the, approach of night, they are all dissolved
away into that which is called invisible,'^ Mr. Spen-
cer says, " A philosophy is self-convicted of inade-
quacy if it does not formulate the whole series of
changes passed through by every ^istence in its pas-
sage from the imperceptible to the perceptible^ and
again from the perceptible to the imperceptible.^' —

* Mr. Spencer's theory of the "persistence of force," and the ordinary
theory of the ** consenration of force," are two different things.

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F. P., p. 541. If the philosophies can stand this
statement, we can. He says also, " If, as we have
seen reason to think, there is an alternation of evolu-
tion and dissolution in the totality of things ; if, as
we are obliged to infer from the persistence of force,
the arrival at either limit of this vast rhythm bring
about the conditions under which a counter-movement
commences; if we are hence compelled to enter-
tain the conception of evolutions that have filled an
immeasurable past, and evolutions that will fill an im-
measurable future, — we can no longer contemplate the
visible creation as having a definite beginning or end,
or as being isolated. It becomes unified with all ex-
istence before and after ; and the force which the
universe presents falls into the same category with its
space and time, as admitting of no limitation in
thought." — jP. p., p. 551. Personally, we know not
which statement to prefer, — that of Kreeshna, or that
of Mr. Herbert Spencer. We therefore deny neither
of them. We might quote passages from the phys-
ics of the ancient Stoics, and also from the specula-
tions of Spinoza, analogous to passages that might be
quoted from Spencer ; but, in doing so, we should
transgress the limits we have set for ourselves. We
cast no doubts on the originality of Mr. Spencer : we
suppose he worked out his conclusions for himself.
We merely remark, that we find little or nothing in
his book of " First Principles " that we have not read
elsewhere, and many years ago.

If, instead of eliminating the discordant elements
from the printed opinions of representative English-
jpaen, to obtain a residuum of possible truth, Mr.

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Spencer had applied himself to the observation of
facts, we think he would have confirmed the knowl-
edge the Ego has of itself, and also the knowledge it
has of first truths, somewhat in the manner following,
— only, of course, Mr. Spencer would have done his
work much better for himself than we can do it for
him : —

How do we obtain our knowledge of time ? We
look at any mass of matter that is in motion, — as,
for example, at the hand of a clock, — and we say.
It is not now where it was; and, during its motion,
time has elapsed. But if the /which makes the affir-
mation be the same with the thoughts, and not a
higher persisting something transcending them, the /
that looked at the clock some time ago is not the same
I that looks at the clock now ; for the thoughts and
perceptions have changed, else there would be nothing
on which to predicate the affirmation of a lapse of
time. If there be not something in man which does
not fall into time, something transcending time, then
man has no knowledge of time : for the knowledge
of time does not consist in a knowledge of one event,
and a knowledge of another event ; but it consists in
a knowledge of that relation between events which
is time. And this knowledge is never possessed ex-
cept hy something to which both events are present ;
for, otherwise, how can the relation between them be
perceived ? If a first fact fall in time, and a second
fact fall in time, the I must exist independently of
time, else it can make no comparison ; and, without a
comparison, it will be incapable of obtaining any no-
tion of time. All the facts of our memory are equally

12*

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presenb to us: a fact that happened ten years ago ia
as present to the J as a fact that happened yesterday.
Time is not a relation of the J to the facts of memory ;
but it is a relation of order and succession that these
facts have among themselves. The /, therefore, tran-
scends time, and is in eternity, although all its aets
take place in time. Eternity is not time indefinitely
extended ; it is not a succession of an infinite number
of moments ; it is not time at all : for time and eternity
exclude each other. Eternity is a never-beginning,
never-ending, never-changing now.

The recollection of the earliest event of my life that
has left its trace in my memory brings with it the
conviction that I have remained identical to myself
ever since the event took place. My body may have
changed once in every seven years ; but that which I
call Ego^ /, is the same /now that it was then. Not
only does this act of memory bring with it the con-
viction of my identity ; it brings also the conviction
that I have persisted through many changes; that
the I has persisted through a certain lapse of time :
but the J only is given as identical ; its thoughts, feel-
ings, volitions, desires, &c., vary at every moment.
The identity is given as belonging to the /alone, and
as apart from the succession of the thoughts, feelings,
volitions, and desires ; for if the /were not, in itself,
independently of its acts, identical, then the first
thought or desire would belong to one person, and
the second thought or desire would belong to another
person.* But our inward experience teaches us that

* ** Either the Ego^ which is supposed to determine or will the action, is
present in consciousness, or it is not. If it is not present in consciousness,

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all our acts have been acts of the same person, of the
same identical L The /does not persist because the
thoughts succeed each other ; for the persistence of
the / is a necessary prior condition, without which
the thoughts could not succeed each other. Succes-
sion is one element only of duration : in order that
duration may be possible, there must be an identity to
bind the discrete elements of succession to each other.
A thing endures when it remains unchanged while
something with which it is related undergoes continual
alteration* Remove the identity which persists through
the changes, and the continual alteration will remain ;

but the duration will have vanished Etc.

We have, therefore, as results of observation in con-
sciousness, and from an inspection of the nature of
our memory, a conviction of the reality of the Ego^
and of its unity and identity ; also the intuitions of
time, duration, and eternity ; and a door open through
which we may pass to a multitude of other intuitions
of first truths. At the least, we obtain by this
method results that may be discussed. In our opin-
ion, we may obtain by it results that can be clothed
with as high a degree of certainty as is compatible

it is something of which we are unconscious, — something,' therefore, of
whose existence we neither have, nor can have, any evidence. If it is pres-
ent in consciousness, then, as it is efoer present^ it can he at each moment noth-
ing other than the state of consciousness^ simple or compound^ passing at that
moment.^^ — Psyc.^ p. 501. Mr. Spencer will not admit that it is possible for
the Ego to be present in consciousness as subject: if present at all, it must,
according to him, be present as transitory (or, as he says, ** passing") object
or relation I Mr. Spencer would confer a favor by stating from what source,
according to him, the Ego gathers its sentiment of its own identity. We are
at a loss to know what it is in man, according to Mr. Spencer, that may pos-
sibly be immortal.

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with the essential limitations and relativeness of our
knowing faculty, — results that are exact, special,
definite, and satisfactory, and therefore not at all
like the results of Mr. Spencer's method, which are
vague, indefinite, abstract, usually negative, of the
highest degree of generality, and therefore in the
highest degree useless. We are, we confess, no more
certain of the validity of the first truths of which we
have been speaking than we are of that of the axioms
of geometry. Our claims are modest ; and we stand
ready to prove, by Mr. Spencer's method, — not by
ours, — that it is a matter of no little doubt whether
the three angles of any plane triangle, taken together,
are, or are not, equal to two right angles. As to the
reality of the Ego^ it is to us a fact (to use the language
of Mr. Spencer) " more certain than any other." And
we think we have succeeded in showing that we know
it, at the least, as certainly as we know any other.

One word in conclusion. We think we find inti-
mations, in the New Testament, of some of the things
we have been trying to say. But we bring forward
this point with great diffidence; for the texts ai:e
mysterious, perhaps obscure, and it is possible that
we may misinterpret them. Our Lord says (John
xiv. 3), "I go and prepare a place for you: I will
come again, and receive you unto myself ; that where
I AM ye may be also." He does not say, Where I
was before I was made flesh \ neither does he say, ^
Where I shall be after I shall be glorified: but he
says, Where I am. Immediately after, he says,
" Whither I go ye know, and the way ye know ; "
and, when the disciples disclaimed such knowledge,

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he said, " I am the way, the truth, and the life : no
man cometh unto the Father but by me." Our Lord
seems to identify his beatitude, and the beatitude he
promises to the disciples, with the condition of trans-
cendency in which he is ; for he says again (chap,
xvii. 24), '' I will that they also whom Thou hast given
me be with me where I am ; that they may behold
my glory which thou hast given me : for thou lovedst
me before the foundation of the world." We know
not how our surmise may strike the reader ; but the
supposition seems rational to us, that our Lord pos-
sessed from infancy, and constantly through his life,
that olear consciousness of his own essence, as some-
thing transcending time, which only one out of mul-
titudes of ordinary men have ever, and which that
one has transiently and very seldom. It is written
(John viii. 57-59), '' The Jews said unto Jesus, Thou
art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abra-
ham ? Jesus said unto them. Verily, verily, I say
unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. Then took
they up stones to cast at him ; but Jesus hid himself,
and went out of the temple." It is not to be sup-
posed that Jesus intended to arrogate to himself the
incommunicable name, or that he, in words, identified
himself with the Father ; for, if he had done so, he
would have violated the express law of the Almighty
as given by Moses, and the Jews would have been
acting in the line of their duty when they took up
stones to cast at him. We suppose, therefore, that
our Lord, when he said these things, spoke as a man,
and that his words may be quoted in confirmation of
Bome of the statements we have made.

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NOTE.

Prof. T. H. Huxley, LL.D., F.R.S., says, in his lecture on the
*' Physical Basis of Life," —

" I take it to be demonstrable that it is utterly impossible to prove that
any thing whatever may not be the eflfect of a material and necessai^ cause,
and that human logic is equally incompetent to prove that any act is really
spontaneous. A really spontaneous act is one which, by the assumption,
has no cause; and the attempt to prove such a negative as this, is, on the
face of the matter, absurd. And, while it is thus a physical impossibility to
demonstrate that any given phenomenon is not the effect of a material cause,
any one who is acquainted with the history of science will admit that its
progress has, in all ages, meftut, and now more than ever means, the exten-
sion of the province of what we now call matter and causation, and the
concomitant gradual banishment from all regions of human thought of what
we call spirit and spontaneity."

Descartes said, " I think : therefore I am." If the Ego thinks,
the thinking is a spontaneous act, and this act has a cause ; for the
Ego which thinks is the efficient cause of its own thinking. There
is no call here for what Mr. Huxli*y designates as " human logic ; "
for these affirmations are to bo proved, if proved at all, by observa-
tion and experience in consciousness, which is not exactly " human
logic." It is not pretended that the soul acts without conjunction
with the body in thinking, or that spirit acts without being in
relations with matter. Every act of thinking is, on one side, spon-
taneous ; and, on the other, determined. The fact of spontaneity is
proved by observation in consciousness ; and the fact of determi-
nation is proved by the ordinary processes of natural science. Nei-
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ther fact is proved by mere '' logic." Every act of life is at once
subjective and objective, spontaneous and determined. Every
act of LIFE is a synthesis of liberty and fatality.

If the progress of physical science means, and has meant, as
Mr. Huxley intimates, the gradual banishment from men's thoughts
of the conceptions of spontaneity and spirit, it is obvious that physi-
cal science naturally falls short of the truth, and requires to be
supplemented by metaphysical science.

Mr. Huxley says, furthermore, —

" Fact I know, and Law I know ; but what is this Necessity, save an
empty shadow of my own mind's throwing? But if it is certain that we
can have no knowledge of the nature of either matter or spirit, and that the
notion of necessity is something illegitimately thrust into the perfectly-legitv-
mate conception of law, the materialistic position, that there is nothing in
the world but matter, force, and necessity, is as utterly void of justification
as the most baseless of theological dogmas."

Mr. Huxley, Mr. Spencer, Mr. John Fiske of Harvard Univer-
sity, and their associates, systematically — although, of course,
unintentionally — misrepresent the " materialistic position." The
materialistic formula is ** Matter, force, chance;" not "Matter,
force, necessity." 'A man who affirms the fact of necessity is no
longer a consistent Materialist, but is on the broad road to Spiritu-
alism. The pantheistic Idealists, who deny the very existence of
matter, affirm, all of them, so far as we know them, the fact of neces-
sity. Mr. Huxley, Mr. Spencer, and the rest, deny the fact of
necessity, and suppose, in so doing, that they prove their system
to be not materialistic. They are mistaken.

Mr. Huxley says in another place, —

" In itself it is of little moment whether we express the phenomena of
matter in terms of spirit, or the phenomena of spirit in terms of matter.
Matter may be regarded as a form of thought; thought may be regarded as
a property of matter: each statement has a certain relative truth. But,
with a view to the progress of science, the materialbtic terminology is in
every way to be preferred."

We apprehend that Mr. Huxley would find it advantageous, in
treating contradictions-pregnant, to accept both terms of the con-

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tradictions in their full force, and wei^h them against each other,
to obtain synthetic results. By the process he follows, which is
that of subjugating^ one term to the other, of sacrificing one term
for the other, he arrives at no synthesis whatever. The fact of
LIFE is essentially complex and synthetic; and it escapes Mr.
Huxley's investigations at every turn.

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FEW-EIs^GLAND

TRANSCENDENTALISM.

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RALPH WALDO EMERSON

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ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED
BY THE AUTHOR.

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TRANSCENDENTALISM.

Transcendentalism is that form of philosophy
which sinks God and nature in man. God, man,
and nature, in their relations (if indeed the absolute
God may be said ever to be in relations), are the
objects of all philosophy ; but, in different theories,
greater or less prominence is given to one or the other
of these three, and thus systems are formed. Pan-
theism sinks man and nature in God ; materialism
sinks God and man in the universe ; transcendental-
ism sinks God and nature in man. In other words,
some, in philosophizing, take their point of departure
in God alone, and are inevitably conducted to pan-
theism ; others take their point of departure in nature
alone, and are led to materialism ; others start with
man alone, and end in transcendentalism.

It is by no means diflScult to deny in words the
actual existence of the outward universe. I may
say, for example, that the paper on which I write has
no more outward existence than the thoughts I refrain
from expressing. When I say I perceive an out-
wardly existing tree, I may be mistaken : what I call

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a tree may have no outward existence, but may, on
the contrary, be created in my perception. Who
knows that a thing which appears red to me may
not appear blue to my neighbor ? If so, then is
color something which I lend to the object. But
why stop at color? Perhaps hardness and weight
have no existence save that which the mind gives.
'' Whether Nature enjoy a substantial existence with-
out," says Mr. Emerson, — the profoundest meta-
physician, after Jonathan Edwards, which this country
has ever produced, — " or is only in the apocalypse .
of the mind, it is alike useful and alike venerable to
me. Be it what it may, it is ideal to me so long as I
cannot try the accuracy of my senses." " What
differs it to me," he asks on another page, " whether
Orion be up there in heaven, or some god paint the
image in the firmament of the soul ? "

Fabre d' Olivet believed the outward universe to be
so dependent upon the individual soul, that we may
properly be said to create it ourselves. He thought
that we ourselves produce all forms and the world,
and that we may create whatever we will, isolatedly
and instantaneously. In truth, if all outward things
depend for their being, and manner of existence, upon
ourselves and upon our inward states, a change in
those states involves a change in outward nature. If
we discover, therefore, the connection of our thoughts
and feelings with outward nature, the whole universe
is in our power ; and we may, by a modification of
ourselves, change the world from its present state
into what we all wish it might become. This thought
gives the foundation for a system of magic. Mr.

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Alcott (an accomplished adept in pantheistic theoso-
phy) thinks the world would be what it ought to be
were he only as holy as he should be : he also con-
siders himself personally responsible for the obliquity
of the earth's axis. A friend once told me, while we
watched large flakes of snow as they were slowly
falling, that, could we but attain to the right spiritual
attitude, we should be able to look on outward nature,
and say, "/snow, J rain." In the eighth number of
" The Dial " we find a beautiful poem touching upon
this theory, from which we make an extract : —

" All is but as it seems, —
The round, green earth,
With river and glen ;
The din and mirth
Of the busy, busy men ;
The world's great fever,
Throbbing forever :
The creed of the sage.
The hope of the age.
All things we cherish.
All that live and all that perish, —
These are but inner dreams.

The great world goeth on

To thy dreaming ;

To thee alone

Hearts are making their moan,

Eyes are streaming.

Thine is the white moon turnii^ night to day ;

Thine is the dark wood sleeping in her ray ;

Thee the winter chills ;

Thee the spring-time thrills :

All things nod to thee ;

All things come to see

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If thou art dreaming on :
If thy dream should break,
And thou shouldst awake,
All things would be gone.*

Nothing is if thou art not.

Thou art under, over all ;

Thou dost hold and cover all ;

Thou art Atlas, thou art Jove ;

The mightiest truth

Hath all its youth

From thy enveloping thought."

In this extract the poet makes man to be the only
real existence, and outward nature to be a mere
phenomenon dependent upon him. Man is repre-
sented as existing really, actually, absolutely; but
nature as an accident, an appearance, a consequent
upon the e*xistence of the human soul. Thus is the
universe sunk, swallowed up, in man. The conclud-
ing seven lines of the extract are an example of the
transcendental theology, an example of the swal-
lowing-up of God himself in man.

Materialism aflSrms 'that man is the result of organ-

* The following lin^, from Shelley, are to the same point*: —

" Earth and ocean,
Space, and the isles of life and light that gem
The sapphire floods of interstellar air;
This firmament pavilioned upon chaos,
Whose outwall, bastioncd impregnably
Against the escape of boldest thoughts, repels them
As Oalpc the Atlantic clouds; this whole
Of suns and worlds and men and beasts and flowers,
With all the silent or tempestuous workings
By which they have been, are, or cease to be, —
Is BUT A VISION : all that it inherits
Are motes of a sick eye, bubbles, and dreams;
Thought is its cradle and its grave.'*

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ization, and denies the existence of separate and
individual souls, thus sinking man in nature : it also
identifies God with the active powers of the universe.
As Pantheism sinks man and nature in God, so ma-
terialism sinks God and man in the universe. Our
transcendentalists are, by no means, always con-
sistent. Sometimes they express themselves in a
way that leaves us in doubt whether they are not, at
bottom, materialists. For example, the poem from
which the foregoing extracts are quoted is followed
by another, from the same author, but of clearly
opposite tenor. We quote a few lines : —

" Dost thou dream that thou art free,
Making, destroying all that thou dost see,
In the unfettered might of thy soul's liberty ?

Lo I an atom crushes thee ;
On(j nerve tortures and maddens thee ;
One drop of blood is death to thee.
The mighty voice op Nature -

Is THY parent, not THY CREATURE;
Is NO PUPIL, BUT THY TEACHER :
,AnD the world would still MOVE ON

Were thy soul forever flown.
For while thou dreamest on, infolded

In Nature's wide embrace,
All thy life is daily moulded

By her informing grace ;
And time and space must reign

And rule o'er thee forever,
And the outworld lift its chain

From off thy spirit never."

Here the soul is evidently sunk in Nature : it is, to
use a mathematical expression, considered as a func-

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tion of the universe. — But we ought not to have
separated these passages ; for the poet aims to show
that transcendentalism and. materialism, liberty and
fatality, are two sides of one truth.

Having spoken thus far of some of the peculiar
characteristics of the transcendental school of phi-
losophy, we shall now take occasion to say a few
words concerning its origin and development. But
here it will be necessary to treat of the philosophy
of Kant, a subject not easily handled. The funda-
mental postulate of the philosopher of Konigsberg
may, however, initiate the reader into the whole sys-
tem. Here it is, as near as we recollect it : —

" If any truth be present to the mind with a conviction of its
universality and necessity, that truth was derived to the mind
from its own operations, and does not rest upon observation and
experience :

" And, conversely, if any truth be present to the mind with a
conviction of its contingency, that truth was derived to the mind
from observation and experience, and not from the operations of
the mind itself."

For example, we know that every effect must have
its cause ; and this truth lies in the mind with a con-
viction of its universality and necessity : this truth is
derived, therefore, not from observation and experi-
ence, but from the operations of the mind itself ; it is
born, not from outward nature, but in and from the
mind itself. In other words, to express ourselves
after the manner of the Scotch school, we are forced
by the very constitution of our being to admit this
truth; so that the recognition of the principle of

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causation may be said to be a law of our intellectual
natures.

On the other hand, we say, We know the sun will
rise to-morrow ; but we are not absolutely certain of
the fact. This second truth lies, therefore, in our
minds, with a conviction of its contingency, and not
of its necessity ; and is, consequently, not derived
from a law of our intellectual natures, but from ob-
servation and experience.

By every fact of experience, a revelation is made
to the soul, not only of the idea whicji it has appro-
priated to itself, but also of those conditions of the
external world, and of its own nature, which ren-
dered that acquisition possible. For example, when
we perceive- moonlight, it is necessary (1) that there
should be something out of us to produce the effect
of moonlight upon our sensibility, and also (2) cer-
tain internal faculties which are responsive to the
influences of moonlight. Without the outward ob-
ject there is no perception, and without the inward
faculties there is likewise no perception: for the
moon shines upon the trees as well as upon me ; but
the trees perceive nothing, being devoid of the per-
ceiving faculty. Again: the idea I have of moon-
shine might have been made to be other than it is
by a change, either, first, in the outward object ; or,
second, in my perceiAdng faculty. Had the moonshine
been different, it would have produced a different ef-
fect upon my sensibility, and, consequently, the idea
would have been different ; had my perceiving fac-
ulty been different, the influence or effect of the
moonshine would have been different, and the idea

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resulting would likewise have been different. All
this is plain. Now, the faculties of the mind are sup-
posed to be permanent, and to always operate in the
same manner : therefore the truths given by the fac-
ulties, where nothing from the external word inter-
venes, are universal and necessary. But the outward
world is given as always changing: therefore the
truths given by observation and experience alone, are
always contingent. Perhaps we can make this plainer
by an illustration.

A nail-machine is composed of a pair of strong
shears, which are made to do their work sometimes
by steam, sometimes by water-power. A man stands
before the machine, and inserts the end of an iron
plate between the two blades of the shears when
they open : when the shears shut, they cut off a nail
from this plate ; and*this nail depends for its size and
shape upon the form of the shears. Let us suppose
the machine to be in operation, and the plate to be
inserted. The machine says, I perceive something
hard, black, cold : what is this something I perceive ?
In answer, the shears close, and the nail is cut off,
and rattles away into the box. Ah, ha ! says the
machine, I now begin to see into the mystery of the
impressions of which I was conscious a moment
ago. It was a tenpenny-nail that produced the im-
pressions, — a long and four-sided substance, sharp
at one end, and flat at the other. By this time
the shears close again ; and the machine says,
Another tenpenny-nail, by all that is glorious I This
acquisition of knowledge is beginning to be interest-
ing. I must know a little more of the philosophy of

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this business. So the machine goes on to soliloquize;
Listen ! —

I have now, says the machine, in my experi-
ence, memory, or nail-box, several tenpenny-nails.
These were undoubtedly acquired from the external
world, and are all that I have as yet acquired from
that world. Therefore, if aught beside tenpenny-
nails exist in the external world, I have no conception
of such existence ; and that world is, consequently,
for me, a collection of tenpenny-nails. The follow-
ing appear, therefore, to be unvarying laws of actual
existence : (1) All things are long and four-sided ;
and (2) all things are sharp at one end, and flat at
the other.

But stop! says the machine — let us beware of
hasty inductions. An idea strikes me I About these
same nails : I am not so clear that they were not
formed by the concurrent action of two agents. Per-
haps the material was furnished by external nature ;
while the form resulted from the law of my nature,,
the constitution of my shears, of my own nail-makiog
being. The following conclusion, at least, cannot be
shaken : I may look upon every nail from two distinct
points of view, — first as to its material, and second
as to its form. The material undoubtedly comies from
without, and is variable : some nails are of brass,
some are of iron ; but the form is invariable, and
comes from within. All my nails must be long and
four-sided, and that universally and necessarily ; but
the material may vary, being sometimes brass, some-
times iron. This is plain : for I acquire all my nails
according to the law of my nail-making being ; that

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is, translating from scientific into popular language,
according to the form of my shears. After mature
deliberation, I think I may take the following postu-
late as the foundation of all my ulterior philoso-
phy:—

Whatever I may find in my nail-box, whether nails or what-
ever else relating to nails, if I am convinced that it is what it is
necessarily, and must be as it is universally, that same thing,
whatever it is, was not derived to my nail-box from external na-
ture, but finds the reason of its existence in the formation and
shape of my shears :

And, conversely, whatever I may hnd in that same nail-box,
which is neither necessary nor universal, but variable and contin-
gent, has its origin, and the reason of its existence, not in the
formation and shape of my shears, but in the external world.

Having relieved itself of this postulate, the ma-
chine continues its meditations in silence.

The difference between the postulate of the nail-
machine and that of the Konigsberg philosopher is by
no means great. Let us use them both in endeavor-
ing to get at clearer conceptions of the position of our
transcendental friends.

Do we not see all material objects under the rela-
tions of space ? Is not space a necessary and univer-
sal form of all our sensible perceptions ? But what
says the postulate? The notion of space cannot
come from the external world ; for, if it did, it would
not be attended with the conviction of universality
and necessity with which it is attended. The notion
of space comes, then, from the mind, and not at all
from the outward world. (We speak as a Kantian.)

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Space, then, has no outward existence ; and the sup-
position that it has is mere hypothesis. We may
treat time in the same manner ; for time is the me-
dium in which, universally and necessarily, we per-
ceive events. Sensible objects and events are the
iron, brass, the material of ideas — space and time
are the form impressed by the shears. After all,
what can we make of time and space ? Simply this.
Time and space are the intellectual spectacles through
which we look on outward nature: they have no
outward existence, but are media, perhaps distorting
media, which we spread before our eyes whenever
we look on the outward. (We give the Kantian
statement.) But if space and time are mere media,
perhaps distorting media, through which we perceive
outward nature, all our sensible perceptions may be
erroneous ; and, if no new method of acquiring knowl-
edge can be discovered, we may as well doubt of every
thing. What shall we do, then ? This is the ques-
tion asked by several of our transcendentalists. The
first course which presents itself to the mind is that
of endeavoring to eliminate the elements of space
and time from all our perceptions : but this is evi-
dently impossible; for perception, divested of its
form, becomes no perception at all, and vanishes.
Space and time must, therefore, be transcended.

To follow a transcendental writer, we must not en-
deavor to find the logical connection of his sentences ;
for there is no such logical connection, and the
writer himself never intended there should be.
Many transcendental compositions read better back-
wards than they do forwards. We ought rather to

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transcend ^pace and time (if indeed we can), and
follow the writer there. A transcendentalist never
reasons: he describes what he sees from his own
point of view. So the word " transcendentalism "
relates not so much to a system of doctrines as it does
to a point of view ; from which, nevertheless, a sys-
tem of doctrines may be visible. This explains to us
why so many, notwithstanding their desire, have
been unable to read the writings of the new school.
They have tried to find a system of doctrines where
they ought to have looked for a point of view.

But to return to our postulate. We see every
thing as existing under the law of cause and effect.
The fact of causation is universal and necessary ; for
every fact of experience gives us, on one side, its ma-
terial, which comes from the out-world ; and, on the
other, its form, which comes always, in part, from the
law of causation. Let the reader turn for a moment
to the postulate of the nail-machine. He will find
that every truth which lies in the mind with a con-
viction of its universality and necessity is derived to
the mind from its own operations, and that it does not
rest at all on observation and experience. But does
not the truth, that every effect must have its cause,
lie in the mind with a conviction of its universality
and necessity ? The consequence is clear. The law
of causation is a distorting medium through which
we look upon the out-world ; and we have no legiti-
mate authority for affirming that the external world
is in any way subjected to that law. It is true that
we are forced to look upon nature under that rela-
tion; but the necessity of the case arises, not from

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the fact of the reality of the law of causation (we
Bpeak as a Kantian), but from the constitution of our
nature. But here all positive knowledge is annihi- *
lated. An idea is good and valid, if we may have
any confidence in these forms of the soul ; but what
is the relation of the form of the shears to the out-
ward object independent of the machine ? Who shall
infer from the inward to the outward ?

The system of Kant is one vast scepticism : admit
the fatal postulate, and there is no dodging the con-
clusion. Our transcendentalists have not been un-
faithful to the thought of their master. They mend
the theory of Kant by carrying it out, and affirming
(with the master) that the form of thought, and
(against the master) that the thing thought of, are
both of inward (subjective) origin.

Transcendentalism affirms that the soul creates all
things, — man, the universe, all forms, all changes, —
and that this wonderful power is possessed by each
individual soul. But it may be asked, Will there
not, then, be necessarily a confusion, a mixture of
universes, arising from the conflict of the creative
energies of distinct souls ? This difficulty may be
made to vanish. Suppose, for a moment, that I have
a magical power over some great public building, —
the City Hall, for example ; suppose every one of its
parts, by a pre-existing harmony, to be made obe-
dient to my will, so that when I will the windows to
open and shut, the doors to turn*on their hinges, &c.,
they immediately do it: would not this City Hall,
thus immediately obedient to my will, be a new body
with which I am invested ? Suppose I have power

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over a dog in the moon, so that he barks, runs, wags
his tail, according to the action of my will : am I not
• existing "in this dim spot which men call earth," and
also, at the same time, in " the orbed maiden whom
mortals call the moon " ? In the first case, I exist as
a man; in the second, as an animal of the canine
species. Without doubt, I may have millions of
bodies ; there is no difficulty in the matter : all that I
operate upon by immediate magical power, by magia^
to use the phrase of Jacob Behmen, is to me a body.
So I may be in this world a man, and in the moon a
dog : yet am I not two, but one ; for one soul ani-
mates the two bodies. But mark ! While I am im-
mersed in things of time and sense, paying no regard
to the soul, which is under and behind all, I think
the man who is now moving about, trading and trav-
elling on earth, to be myself; and only after deep
thought, fasting, and meditation, do I find that I am
also a dog. But here mysteries thicken. I am not
only both a man and a dog : I am also neither a man
nor a dog ; for I am the soul that speaks through
both. " What we commonly call man," says Mr.
Emerson, " the eating, drinking, planting, counting
man, does not, as we know him, represent himself,
but misrepresents himself. Him we do* not respect ;
but the soul, whose organ he is, would he. let it ap-
pear through his action, would make our knees
bend." The man, therefore, who has attained to
right knowledge, is aVare that there is no such thing
as an indrvidual soul. There is but one soul, which
is the " Over-Soul ; " and this one Soul is the animat-
ing principle of all bodies. When I am thoughtless,

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and immersed in things which are seen, I mistake
the person who is now writing these sentences for
myself: but, when I am wise, this illusion vanishes
like the mists of the morning ; and then I know that
what I thought to be myself was only one of my
manifestations, only a mode of my existence. It is I
who bark in the dog, grow in the tree, and murmur in
the passing brook. Think not, my brother, that thou
art diverse and alien from myself; it is only while
we dwell in the outward appearance that we are
two : when we consider the depths of our being, we
are found to be the same ; for the same self, the same
vital principle, animates us both. (We speak as a
transcendentalist.) I create the universe ; and thou
also, my brother, createst the same ; for we create,
not two universes, but one ; for we two have but one
soul : there is but one creative energy, which is above,
and under, and through all.

This is no new theory. This doctrine was well
known in the East before history began. No man can
tell when it arose ; for it is, perhaps, as old as thought
itself. " Rich," say the Vedas, " is that universal
self whom thou worshippest as the soul." We should
strive, therefore, to disentangle ourselves from the
world of matter, from the bonds of time and space,
that we may take our stand at once in the " Over-
Soul," which we are, did we but know it. We are
the Over-Soul ; and we come to our own native home
when we attain to our true point of view, where the
whole universe is seen to be our body. Then do we
know of a truth that it is we who think, love, laugh,
bark, growl, run, crawl, rain, snow, &c., &c. Mr,

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Emerson has given a beautiful expression to this
thought : —

" There is no great and no small
To the Soul that maketh all :
And, where it cometh, all things are ;
And it comeih everywhere.**

"There is one mind," says Mr. Emerson in his
Essay on History, " common to all individual men.
Every man is an inlet to the same, and to all of the
same. He that is once admitted to the right of rea-
son is made a freeman of the whole estate. What
Plato has thought, he may think ; what a saint has
felt, he may feel ; what at any time has befallen any
man, he can understand. Who hath access to this uni-
versal Mind is a party to all that is or can be done;
for this is the only and sovereign Agents

It may easily be seen that this amounts to an iden-
tification of man with God. Yet this system is by no
means pantheistic : perhaps, indeed, we may be permit-
ted to coin a new term, and call it human pantheism.
Pantheism sinks man in God, — makes him to be a phe-
nomenon of the divine existence ; but this system, so
far from being an absorption of humanity in God, is
an absorption of God in the human soul. A pantheis-
tic friend once explained to me the difference between
his system and that of the transcendentalists. "I
hold myself," he said, " to be a leaf, blown about by
the winds of change and circumstance, and holding
to the extreme end of one of the branches of the tree
of universal existence ; but these gentlemen (referring
to the transcendentalists) think themselves to be some
of the sap^'*

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Let us go up higher, and examine this doctrine as
it manifested itself in the Oriental world; let us -ex-
amine it in its bearings upon the problem of the soul's
future existence. It is written in the Vedas, " The
soul should be known ; that is, it should be distin-
guished from Nature : for then it will not return ; it
will not return." In this passage, under a form pecu-
liar to the East, we find the enunciation of one of the
fundamental problems of philosophy (that of the im-
mortality of the soul) with the indication of a solu-
tion. It is the general belief of the Orientals, that
the soul of a dying man, after leaving this present
body, will be born again into the world under some
new form. A man, in his next body, may be a man,
a horse, or a dog; and this re-birth, whether in the
old or under a new form, is the return of the soul.
The expiation of certain crimes consists, according to
the description in the laws of Menu, in the soul's liv-
ing a thousand successive lives in the bodies of a
thousand different spiders. The prospect, therefore,
is by no means agreeable ; and we cannot wonder that
the whole force of the Oriental mind should have
been directed to the discovery of some means whereby
the return of the soul might be avoided.

In all ages of the world there have been philoso-
phers who held that the soul builds the body ; that
is, that the character and form of the body are de-
pendent on the character of the soul. The diametri-
cally opposite doctrine is, indeed, more fashionable at
this time: for many of our phrenologists and other
materialists believe that it is the body which builds ihe
soul; that is, that the soul is a function of (depend-

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ent upon) some portion of the organism, — say the
brain, for example. An appeal is made, in both
cases, to observation and experience. The phrenolo-
gist, from an examination of the skull, will give a
pretty shrewd guess as to the character of its owner :
the idealist, on the contrary, will call our attention
to the fact that the indulgence of certain passions alters
the conformation of the face and the expression of the
figure. The idealist says that the man who acquires
the disposition of a fox will begin to look like a fox;
will begin to become a fox as far as such a trans-
formation is compatible with human nature. It is in
the nature of sphit, says the idealist, to express itself
in some form ; and, as we are all rendered free at
death, why should we not, in the next birth, take the
form best adapted to express our inward natures ?
Why should not the man who is, in heart, a fox, take
in the next birth the outward form of a fox ? Why
should not a fierce, bloody man be born the next
time as a bull-dog ? and a woman, who has no desire
except for dress and display, be born as a peacock ?
Are their souls immortal ? Yea, perhaps ; but their
present desires may remain with them, for their hap-
piness or misery, throughout eternity. Conversely, a
man of pure and angelic character begins inevitably
to present a pure and angelic appearance ; the counte-
nance becomes placid, the manner sedate ; and the
soul of the man transforms his body till it becomes as
angelic as is compatible with its present relations :
and, when it assumes a new form after death, what
shall prevent it from assuming the one most appropri
ate to its nature ?

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Our transceudentalists hold, not only that the soul
builds the body, but that it builds all things, — God,
the universe, other men, &c. "In the order of
thought," says Mr. Emerson, " the materialist takes
his departure from the external world, and esteems a
man as one product of that. The idealist takes his
departure from his consciousness, and reckons the
world as an appearance. . . . The experience of the
idealist inclines him to behold the procession of facts
you call the world as flowing perpetually outward
fwrn an invisible unsounded centre in himself^ centre
alike of him and of them, and necessitating him to
regard all things as having a subjective or relative
value, relative to that aforesaid unknown centre of
him.^' A little thought will convince the reader that
the theory, that the soul builds the body, is as plausible
and as probable as the other •doctrine, that the body
builds the soul. In short, subjective-idealism is just
as true as materialism ; and we may add, just as false.
As is evident, if we start with man alone, our reason-
ings will leave us, at the end, in transcendentalism
(subjective-idealism) ; and, if we take our departure
in nature alone, we end, of necessity, in materialism ;
both partial, exclusive, and inadequate systems. The
fact is, the body builds the soul, and the soul builds
the body ; but (we will permit ourselves to add) it is
God who builds both.

What reasoning, what train of thought, lay in the
minds of the writers of the Vedas when they ex-
plained the method to be followed by men desirous
of avoiding a return into this evil mansion of pain ?
Why did they suppose that a distinction of the soul

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from Nature, by the exercise of thought, would be
sufficient to overcome the necessity for a return ? We
will endeavor to give an answer to these questions.
But it will be necessary to explain beforehand some
of the peculiarities of the Oriental philosophy, and
to fix the meaning of several unusual terms and
phrases, in order that the reader may readily under-
stand the somewhat obscure texts we shall find it
necessary to quote. By means of these definitions,
we trust we shall be able to set forth in a clear light
the true ntlture both of transcendentalism and of
Aryan Orientalism, and also to show that the two are
really one.

The invisible world, or world of potential existences^
of the Orientals, is precisely what Jacob Behmen,
John Pordage, the Gnostics, and other Western the-
osophists, designate as ^ the abyss. Now, in order to
describe or illustrate the meaning of the words, the
abyss, or the thing they designate, we must have re-
course to the reader's own imagination ; for the tran-
scendental philosophy proceeds from within outwards,
from the thought and imagination to the existing fact,
and not conversely. Let the reader, therefore, sup-
pose, in thought, this visible universe to be broken*
Let all the qualities by which we distinguish the dif-
ferences subsisting among the different bodies of
Nature be imagined as ceasing to manifest them^
selves. Let all properties, all activities in Nature, be
figured as re-entering into themselves. Let all that
by which each manifests its own proper existence fall
back into the virtual state, so that all properties, all
activities, exist no longer in act, but only in the power

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of acting. Like a circle that contracts more and
more till it vanishes in its own centre, let all exten-
sions contract into — into Tiphat, O ye Powers ! Let all
qualities derived from extension, or which are manifest-
ed to us through extension, enter again into themselves.
Let, in short, all properties of things be only in po-
tentiality * of manifestation. When all outward things
are .thus conceived as existing in potentiality of mani-
festation, man also must be conceived as having
ceased from all actual existence,! and must be fig-
ured (if figured at all) as having re-entered the po-
tential state. In fact, how does man act ? how does
he manifest himself ? He moves, eats, drinks, thinks,
wills, remembers, hopes, loves, degires, &c. But can
a man eat without eating something? or can he drink

* What is potential existence ? What is actual existence ? What is the
difference between potential and actual existence ? A thing exists potentially^
or inpotentia^ when it impossible only. This same thing exists actually when
it has not only this possible (potential) existence, but also a real existence in
act,

t What is the difference in signification between the terms essence and
existence? Essence is pure being, without efflux or manifestation. Exist-
ence involves outgoing, or manifestation. The soul of man, and every other
substance, according to the foundation of its being, according to its centre or
root, is; but according to its outgoings, manifestations, or operations, it
exists. A thing is when in potentia^ or when possessing only a possible ex-
ittence ; but it exists when it has not only its root of substance or being, but
also an actual manifestation.

The foregoing definition of the word essence is the one given by Sweden-
borg, the Gnostics, and other theosophers, and is not at all the same with the
one given by the schoolmen. The scholastic definition of the term, the one
adopted by Spinoza, who scorns the gnosis, is as follows : —

Essence is that without which a particular thing cannot be what it is. A
dock and a turnspit may be constructed of like materials; but it is ^seniial
to a clock that it should mark the regular divisions of time : if a clock lose
its capability of keeping time, it ceases to be quoad clock, although it may
ftUl be utilized for communicating an irregular movement of rotation.

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if he do not drink something ? Can he move without
moving through some space, or moving something ;
viz., his body? Can he*love, hope, desire, think,,
without thinking, hoping, loving, desiring something ?
When all things are in the potential state, this some-
thing, which is necessary to all his actions, is with-
drawn : and, as man cannot act or manifest himself
without the concurrence of this something, he must
also himself cease from all action, all manifestation ;
he must himself, in like manner, re-enter the potential
state. Conceive, if you can, that you are removed
in some distant region of space where nothing can
come into contact with you ; where the light of the
stars of heaven is extinguished ; where the undula-
tions of the all-pervading ether cease to operate;
where all motion, all change, all springing sources,
have re-entered into themselves: conceive,- also, your
memory to be so blotted out that the voices of the
past sound no longer : conceive that no fact remains
present to the mind on which to base an inference in
regard to the future. Would you live, act, think, or
desire ? Of what would you think ? or what would you
desire ? All these objects of thought and desire have
entered, according to the supposition, into the poten-
tial state, and manifest themselves no longer to you.
Evidently you have entered, as far as is ppssible this
side the gates of death, into the potential state, into
the invisible world, into the abyss.

When we thus conceive this universe to be broken,
to hare returned into its original essence, but non-ex-
istence ; when we conceive man also to have ceased
from all actual existence, — we shall perceive all our

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representations, humanity, the outward world, our-
selves, all thought, all desire, re-entering into each
other, so as to exist thenceforth only in germ, only in
potentiality of existence. Man and the universe will
be effaced together ; all things will enter the poten-
tial state simultaneously : for the human intelligence
reflects the universe ; and the re-entering of the uni-
verse into the potential state will be marked by the
smooth surface of the mirror (the mind of man),
which gives thenceforth no reflection, which marks
thenceforth no change.

Thus beings become one being in potentiality of
manifestation. Yet, when we say oTie being, our
words must not be taken with too much strictness.
Nature and man have re-entered into themselves, and
all things exist only in potentia : they have, become
one being, insomuch as each is now a cause existing
in potentiality of operation ; one being, inasmuch as
these causes are undistinguishable the one from the
other, since all that can effect a distinction is swal-
lowed up in the abyss of potentiality. But they are
many beings, insomuch as they are the potentiality of
a world involving diversity and change.

This one being, this world in potentia, is the abyss
of Jacob Behmen, the invisible world of the Orientals.

"I am," says Kreeshna in the BhagvaJ; Geeta, "that which
' is the seed of all things in nature ; and there is nothing, whether
animate or inanimate, which is without me. But what, Arjoon !
hast thou to do with this manifold wisdom ? I planted the uni-
verse with a single portion, and stood still. [The son of Pandoo
then beheld within the mighty compound being, within the body
of the God of gods, standing together, the whole universe, divided

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forth into its vast variety.] I see thyself, says Arjoon, on all
sides, of infinite shape, formed ^th abundant arms and bellies and
mouths and eyes ; but I can neither discover thy beginning, thy
middle, nor again thy end, O universal Lord, form of the imi-
verse 1 "

The following extract from the Laws of Menu is
clear, and shows the distinction between the poten-
tial and actual worlds; the first being the substance
and seed of the latter, and the latter being the for-
mer drawn out into actual relations : —

" They who are acquainted with day and night know that a day
of Brahma is a thousand revolutions of the Yoogs, and that his
night extendeth for a thousand more. On the coming-forth of
that day, all things proceed from invisibility to visibility : so, on the
approach of night, they are all dissolved away into that which is
called invisible. The universe even, having existed, is again dis-
solved ; and now again, on the approach of day, b^ divine necessi-
ty, it is reproduced. That which, upon the dissolution of all things
else, is not destroyed, is superior and of another nature from that
visibility : it is invisible and eternal. He who is thus called Invisi
hie and Incorruptible is even he who is called the Supreme Abode ;
which men, having once obtained, they never more return to the
earth : that is my mansion. That Supreme ^eing is to be ob-
tained by him that worshippeth no other gods. In him is included
all Nature ; by him all things are spread abroad."

We give a few more extracts from the " Bhagvat
Geeta:" —

" The great Brahm," says Kreeshna, " is my womb. In it I
place my foetus, and from it is the production of all Nature. • • ^ I
am generation and dissolution ; the place where all things are re-
posited, and the inexhaustible seed of all Nature. I am sunshine,
and I am rain. I now draw in, and I now let out. I am death
and immortality. I am entity and non-entity. . . . The ignorant.

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being unacquainted with my supreme nature, which is superior to
all things, and exempt from decay, believe me, who am invisible, to
exist in the visible form under which they see me. ... I am the
creation and the dissolution of the whole universe. There is not
any thing greater than I ; and all things hang on me, even as pre-
cious gems on a string. I am moisture in the water, light in the
sun and moon, invocation in the Vedas, sound in the firmament,
human nature in mankind. In all things I am life, and I am zeal
in the zealous ; and know, O Arjoon 1 that I am the eternal seed
of all Nature. . . . I will now tell thee what is Gnea, or the object
of wisdom ; from which understanding thou wilt enjoy immortality.
This is that which has no beginning, and is separate, even Brahm,
who can neither be called sat (ens) nor asat (non-ens). Unat-
tached, it containeth all things j and, without quality, it partaketh
of every quality. It is undivided ; yet in all things it standeth di-
vided. It is wisdom, — that which is the object of wisdom, and
that which is to be obtained by wisdom."

We may illustrate this doctrine still further by
commenting on the following extract from Dupuis.
That author says, —

"Amid the shadows of a dark night, when the heavens are
covered with a thick cloud, when all bodies have disappeared from
our eyes, and we seem to dwell alone with ourselves and with the
black shadows which surround us, what is then the measure of our
existence ? How much does it differ from an entire annihilation,
especially when memory and thought do not surround us with the
images of objects which the day revealed to us ? All is dead to us ;
and we ourselves are, in a certain manner, dead to Nature. What
can give us life, and draw our soul from this mortal weakness which
chains down its activity in the shadows of chaos ? A single ray
of light can restore us to ourselves, and to Nature, which seemed
so far removed from us. Behold the principle of our true exist-
ence, without which our life would be but the sentiment of a
prolonged ennui. It is this need of light, it is its creative energy,
which has been felt by all men ; for they have seen nothing more

16*

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frightful than its absence. Behold their first Divinity, whose
brilliant splendor, sparkling forth from the bosom of chaos, caused
to proceed thence man and the universe, according to the theo-
logical principles of Orpheus and of Moses."

The thought here expressed is simple; but its
power is inexhaustible. We need not dwell on the
view of the nature of life which is so clearly and beau-
tifully expressed ; for we shall have much to say of it
hereafter. But we would ask Dupuis, Is there noth-
ing but light which can expel this obscure gloom ? is
there nothing but Ught which can deliver man from »
this nugatory . abyss of potential existence ? How
much is involved in the expression, " especially when
memory and thought do not surround us with the
images of objects which the day revealed to us " ? A
single ray of light would indeed restore us to reality,
to communion with nature; but would not the re-
membrance of a single object seen in the day awaken
the soul to a real life, though not to an immediate
communion with nature ? While we are in this state
of darkness and of silence, this state of dreaming
without dreams, the whole expanse^ if we may so
speak, of memory, is spread before the inner eye, but
without form, and, as it were, void. No distinct
image is present to the mind ; and all our conceptions
lie in the memory and imagination (which is another
form, or rather a modification of memory), in the mere
potentiality of existence as actual conceptions. If
we begin to act mentally, if we begin to form to our-
selves a picture or conception, the facts of memory
rise up before us ; and, taking the isolated parts, we
bring them together, — perhaps in new forms by the

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exercise of imagination, perhaps in the reproduction
of some- well-known collocation by the exercise of
simple memory.

This vast and apparently empty (as in the case
supposed by Dupuis) expanse of memory, which
stretches out before the inward eye when we seem to
cease from all thought, is a% the invisible or potential
world, as the abyss. This empty expanse^ containing
the germ of all our conceptions, is a similitude, a
correspondency, of the invisible world of the Orientals.
But the invisible world is the seed of all nature ;
whUe the vacant expanse, or world, of memory and
imagination, is finite, and the seed of the conceptions
of the individual man only. The whole universe is
contained, in potentia^ in the abyss : in like manner,
in this field of memory are contained potentially all
those elements which go to make up the conceptions
formed by the mind when it enters into operation.

According to xhe Oriental theology as perfected
by Sakyamuni (and Buddhism is the only Indian doc-
trine that has profoundly influenced the current of
thought in Western Asia and in Europe), a man
must, in this world, crucify every affection, every
tendency, and endeavor to be, at the moment of
death, in the state described in the quotation from
Dupuis : thus, and thus only, can he escape the re-
turn^ the necessity of transmigrating. " At the end
of life," says Kreeshna, who is the Abyss, " he who,
having abandoned his mortal frame, departeth think-
ing only of me, without doubt goeth unto me ; or else,
if he think not of me, but of other things, whatever
nature he shall thus call upon at the end of life, when

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lie shall quit his mortal frame, he shall go into iV*
When a man dies who is without affection, whose
mind is fixed upon the Abyss, upon the universal
unity of indifference, he will not take any form (for
he has no particular character or tendency), but will
at once enter into the potential state. But this re-
entrance into the potential state seems to be annihila-
tion (though the essence of the soul subsists) rather
than immortality. Kreeshna is the Abyss ; and the
highest state of future happiness held out by the
*' Bhagvat Geeta " consists in a return into Kreeshna.
In this state of essence without existence we should
indeed be free from the danger of migration, for we
should be thenceforth free from all relations what-
ever ; but no future life is compatible with such an
order of being. We should like to know how our
transcendentalists answer the objections brought
against the doctrine of the " Bhagvat Geeta." Their
whole desire is to re-enter into themselves ; to be
absolved from all dependency upon any thing which
is not themselves. How do they escape the Abyss ?
How do they avoid a return into Kreeshna, into " the
Supreme Abode " ? Their only argument for immor-
tality is the metaphysical one, derived from the fact
of the soul's simplicity : but this proves only that the
soul's being is imperishable ; it proves nothing in re-
lation to a future life.

Here are some intimations of the rule of conduct
which ought to be followed by the aspirant after im-
mersion in Kreeshna : —

" Those men of regulated lives," says Kreeshna, " whose sins
are done away, being freed from contending passions, enjoy me.

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• . . He, O Arjoon I who, from conviction, acknowledgeth my
divine birth and actions, doth not, upon his quitting his mortal
firame, enter into another;, for he enteretJi into me. . . . They who
serve me with adoration, / am in ihem, and they in me.* . . .
Wise men who have abandoned all thought of the fruit which is
produced from their actions are freed from the chains of birth,
and. go to the regions of eternal happiness. ... A man is said to
be confirmed in wisdom when he forsaketh every desire which en-
tereth into his heart, and of himself is ha^py, and contented in'
himself. . . . The wisdom of that man is established, who, in all
things, is without affection ; and, having received either good or
evil, neither rejoiceth at the one, nor is cast down by the other.
His wisdom is confirmed, when, like a tortoise, he can draw in all
his members, and restrain them from their wonted purposes. The
hungry man loseth every object but tlie gratification of his appe-
tite ; and, when he is become acquainted with the Supreme, he
loseth even that. . . . The man whose passions enter his heart as
the waters run into the unswelling, passive ocean, obtaineth hap-
piness. . , . The man whose mind is led astray by the pride of
self-sufficiency thinketh that he himself is the executor of all those
actions which are performed by the principles of his constitution ;
but the man who is acquainted with the two distinctions of cause
and efiect will give himself no trouble. . . . The man who, em-
ployed in the practice of works, is of a purified soul and a subdued
spirit, and whose soul is the universal soul, is not (injuriously) af-
fected by so being."

* See St. John's Gospel, ch. xiv. 20, and ch. xvii. 21. Recent investi-
gators profess themselves able to show that the Bhagvat Geeta is of much
later origin than has heretofore been supposed. It appears, now, Jto be
probable, not that the writers of the New Testament were influenced by
the Bhagvat Geeta, but that the writer of the Bhagvat Geeta was influenced
(not in this passage only, but in many others) by the style of St. John's
Gospel. The substance^ however, of the philosophic doctrines of the Bhag-
vat Geeta may be traced back among the Buddhists, to a date more than
seven hundred years before the coming of our Lord.

This pamphlet was written in 1845 or 1846; and the author, at that time,
iupposed the Bhagvat Geeta to be a very ancient book.

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" This whole world was spread abroad by me," says Kreeshna,
** in my invisible form. All things depend on me, and I am not
dependent upon them. Behold my divine connection. My crea-
tive spirit is the keeper of all things, not the dependent. Under-
stand that all things rest in me, as the mighty air, which passeth
everywhere, resteth in the ethereal space. At the end of the for-
mation, at the end of the day of Brahma, all things, O son of
Koontee I return into my primordial source ; and, at the beginning
of another formation, I create them all again. I plant myself in
my own virtue, and create, again and again, this assemblage of
beings, this whole, from the power of Nature without power.
Those works confine not me ; because I am like one that sitteth
aloof, uninterested in those works. By my supervision. Nature
produceth both the movable and the immovable. It is from this
source, O Arjoon 1 that the universe resolveth."

Buddhism, as it seems to us, is the true conclusion,
and the logical halting-place, for all these speculations.
The Buddhists teach that the universe is brought into
the possession of such existence as it has through
the disintegration of the Aboriginal Nothing by means
of another subsequent nothing. The first Nothing is
the Abyss of potentiality : the subsequent nothing is
error. The world commences by the fact that es-
sences lost in the indifference of mere potential
being, become deluded into a belief of their own and
each other's existence. Their error gradually becomes
strdhger and stronger ; and at the same time, by rea-
son of their error, the universe appears to thicken
and harden little by little, and to seemingly pass
into actuality. But this actuality is not reality ; it is
mere grossness of error ; it is maya, illusion. The
universe is nothing. Man's body, and the worlds,
exist only in erroneous supposition. The reality of

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the worlds is only such as is given in the formula,
actuality = 0x0. Evil, sorrow, and pain have their
abiding-place nowhere but in actual worlds. The
actual universe is therefore the substance of evil, if
evil can properly be said to have any substance. The
way of salvation is therefor^ plain. It is the path of
knowledge ; for knowledge destroys error, and, conse-
quently, the visible universe which is founded in error,
as light dispels darkness. The perception of visible
things is a mistaken prejudice, bred from unreasoning
habit. As man progresses in knowledge, error di-
minishes, and the world and himself recede towards
potential existence ; and, when man becomes perfect
in knowledge, error is abolished, and man, and the
world so far as it concerns man! re-enter the abyss
together, and cease to exist.

The Buddhists designate the original nothing by
the word nirvana : va, to blow ; nir^ out. The soul
attains beatitude when it reaches nirvana; when it
becomes like the flame of a candle that has been
blown out; when it becomes defunct, extinct, nothing.
It comes from nothing, it is nothing, and it goes to
Nothing.

We have nothing to say in praise or dispraise of
Buddhism; but we will conclude our remarks by
observing that its doctrines, though transcendently
spiritual, are not at all the Christian doctrines which
proclaim the existence of a living God, and a future
of eternal life for the human soul, but, on the con-
trary, their distinct negation.

It is estimated that there are in the world more
than three hundred and fifteen million adherents of

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the Buddhist faith : the Christians, counting all de-
nominations, are supposed to number less than half
as many. Buddhism is the religion of the vast coun-
tries between the Himalaya Mountains and the boun-
daries of Siberia, of the majority of the people in the
great empire of China, the religion of the empire and
people of Japan, of the States in and near the pen-
insula of Farther India, and of many of the islands
south and east of Farther India. It is hard to be-
lieve that the most widely diffused religion in the
world, and the one which, after Christianity, is the
most spiritual of any, the most favorable to civiliza-
tion, the most effectually moral, and the one that has
awakened in its missionaries the greatest enthusiasm,
followed by the greatest amount of self-denial and
self-sacrifice, is a religion professedly founded on
speculative atheism ; but such appears to be the es-
tablished fact.

The Buddhist theory denies that there is any true
God other than the impersonal aboriginal Abyss which is
the one ground of all visible things. The counter-theory
affirms the self-consciousness of the Supreme, and teaches
that the personality of God is a necessary condition,
without which the Abyss cannot be. Shall He who is
the author of all consciousnesfs, and of all life, be Him-
self devoid of self-consciousness, and not alive I

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